


Ender Kingdom

by Black_Twilight_Phoenyx



Series: Ender Legends Series 1: The Ender Wars [1]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Adventure, Gaming, Gen, Love (later on), Minecraft
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-21
Updated: 2015-05-21
Packaged: 2018-03-31 14:07:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 59,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3980920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Black_Twilight_Phoenyx/pseuds/Black_Twilight_Phoenyx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>DiamondBlade28 is a regular boy, a Minecraft fanatic. He loves playing it and enjoys building and fighting intense PvP battles. But one day, during a terrible thunderstorm, a bolt of lightning strikes his computer and sends him into the Minecraft world. Not all of him, though -- his body is still in his room, hunched over the computer, but his spirit was in the Minecraft world and in his Minecraft character. Wanting to get back home desperately, DiamondBlade wanders the land and stumbles upon a huge kingdom called the Ender Kingdom -- a fierce civilization populated by warrior NPCs that is constantly being attacked by Endermen. The Ender Kingdom realize that DiamondBlade could help them and recruit him to lead their armies, but DiamondBlade knows that he's not a hero. Minecraft was only a game to him, not something that would be life-threatening to him and his newfound friends. But when DiamondBlade finally agrees after realizing that he doesn't really have a choice, the Ender portal hidden deep in the Endermen's fortress spits out a new enemy. DiamondBlade must lead the Ender Kingdom against the Endermen and their king, a huge monster that blocks out the sun with its wings...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. DiamondBlade28

A lone wolf strayed across the plains, unaware of the watchful eyes observing its every move. The small gray and white furry beast padded across the ground, head held high to sniff the air. Almost time. Then, suddenly, the wolf froze as he caught an alarming scent, whipping around to stare at the bush its hunter was crouched behind. And…go! The hunter of the wolf vaulted out of the bushes, wielding his bow expertly. The wolf yipped and recoiled from the hunter, yet unwilling to attack. The hunter thought to himself, You’re gonna have to do something.  
He grabbed his bow and nocked an arrow, pulling back with firm hands. Aiming straight at the wolf, the hunter let go of the arrow and let it fly, hitting the wolf right in the forehead — but not killing it. The wolf barked and growled, its eyes immediately turning red. The hunter took a step back as the wolf hurtled towards him and quickly fired another arrow at the wolf. Oops, all out of bones. The arrow hit the wolf’s paw this time, causing it to stumble. But the wolf swiftly regained its composure and sprang off the ground, intent on killing the hunter.   
Looks like I can’t use my bow anymore! The hunter dropped his bow and drew his iron sword, slashing upwards just in time. The wolf yelped and fell back, its body flashing red as it died. The hunter cautiously walked over to the limp creature and watched as it disappeared in little white clouds. Two orbs of XP appeared in place of the wolf, and the hunter ran over the orbs to absorb the XP points.  
“I wish that wolves would actually drop something,” the hunter said in real life. “I mean, is wolf meat really that overrated?”  The person who controlled the Minecraft hunter was named DiamondBlade28 — well, at least, that was his Minecraft username. DiamondBlade had been playing Minecraft for about six months now, and he had to admit that he had made pretty cool buildings. On Survival mode, he ruled. He was a master of surviving in the Minecraft world, and he had memorized the info of nearly every hostile mob. Nothing could survive him — well, he wasn’t exactly sure yet about that fact. He had never actually been to the End, because he still hadn’t found enough endermen and it hurt him to admit that. But he did have a pretty good idea of how to kill the Ender Dragon. He had seen enough YouTube videos about it. And nothing annoyed him more than ignorant users who kept asking everyone how to do this and how to do that. He despised griefers and made sure to hide all of his bases and homes well to prevent griefers from finding them.  
DiamondBlade rolled his eyes and moved on through the plain. Right now he was trying out a seed for a large village, and apparently it was located somewhere here. But all he saw was rolling plains. Ugh, DiamondBlade typed out to no one in particular — he was in single player mode, so he wasn’t quite sure why he was commenting. Maybe he just wanted to express his annoyance. This place has absolutely nothing!  
Not true! came a response from some guy named Creeper671.  
“What the heck?” DiamondBlade demanded of his computer. “I thought I was on single player!”  
His computer did not reply.  
This is single player. How are you on? DiamondBlade typed to Creeper671.  
Creeper typed back, No clue. Com is glitchy. There was a pause, and then another comment from Creeper: At some cool village. Found like five emeralds — cool blacksmith!  
Coming; where is it?  
I’ll come find you  
DiamondBlade typed OK and sprinted through the constant hills and grass, looking for the other user. A minute later, a user with a creeper-like skin on— well, of course it’d be a creeper — appeared over the horizon. Is that you, Creeper? DiamondBlade typed.  
A moment later, a response popped up from Creeper671: It’s me. Follow  
Sure  
Creeper turned away and ran off, and DiamondBlade had to sprint again to catch up with the user. Creeper slowed for him, and then the two users ran side-by-side. Is it close? DiamondBlade asked.  
Creeper stopped for a minute to type, and then DiamondBlade saw his answer. Yep. Then another request came from Creeper671: Friends?  
DiamondBlade shrugged and typed, Sure, I guess.  
Cool  
Again the two users set off, and in real life DiamondBlade thought, Man, I wish this was Creative mode. I hate having to run so far all the time. But then again, that was one of the challenges of Survival mode. He was on medium right now, to have the right amount of mobs attacking him. He thought peaceful and easy were pretty much useless, so he either went on normal or hard.  
Right here, came a statement from Creeper. DiamondBlade stopped; he had only just noticed that his friend had stopped. DiamondBlade halted and looked to his right, where Creeper was pointing. “What are you looking at?” DiamondBlade muttered to himself. Then he gasped. There was a big village in the middle of the boring plain, and even through the computer, DiamondBlade could imagine that Creeper was pretty proud of himself — as if he build it himself. Nah; that’s impossible, DiamondBlade told himself.  
See it? Creeper asked.  
DiamondBlade snorted and typed, It’s hard not to, Creeper.  
IKR  
DiamondBlade nodded and walked into the village. There were NPC villagers wandering around, and one of them in a brown coat — an average farmer — stopped his work and turned to look at him, the farmer’s arms linked over his chest. Heh, how are they supposed to work? DiamondBlade asked himself. Through all of the months he’d played Minecraft, he had never stopped to wonder how farmers and the rest of the NPCs did their jobs with their arms completely useless. Hello, DiamondBlade typed to the NPC, even though he knew the villager wouldn’t know it.  
Creeper joined him in looking at the farmer. Have you ever wondered how they’re supposed to work with their arms across their chests like that?  
I was just asking myself that. LOL  
I wish I knew. But I don’t  
That’s OK  
DiamondBlade wandered through the village, caring only for the blacksmith’s shop. Finally he spotted it — the blacksmith was standing in front of the little lava pit. The NPC grunted, making the weird derpy noise that sometimes annoyed DiamondBlade. DiamondBlade passed the blacksmith and entered the tight shop, spotting the chest in the far left corner. DiamondBlade eagerly opened it and sorted through the items. He saw two emeralds, five iron ingots, an apple, and a full set of iron armor. That’s it? DiamondBlade typed to Creeper, annoyed. I thought this was a good blacksmith.  
Creeper’s response came: Sorry about that I took all the emeralds and stuff. I sorta also took the gold ingot in there…I wasn’t expecting anyone else  
DiamondBlade let out a huff and typed back, Whatever.  
Sry  
Meh  
DiamondBlade took the two emeralds, three of the ingots, and the iron armor. Quickly donning the armor, DiamondBlade turned to Creeper and told him, I’m gonna get out of here. Going to play Hunger Games.  
A moment later Creeper’s response popped up. Bai, DiamondBlade  
CYA. Hey, u noob?  
Nah — Been playing for eight months  
I played for six  
K bye

 

DiamondBlade sighed and got off of the world. He went onto the servers and searched for his favorite Hunger Games server. He found it and logged on, instantly teleported to an old ruined castle with signs that listed all of the active Hunger Games arenas. There were at least fifty users in the castle, wandering around and talking with each other. DiamondBlade pushed past all of them and managed to reach the wall of signs.   
He pressed one of them and was teleported to the map. He spawned on a platform of diamond and gold blocks in a cross formation, and he was standing on iron. The other eleven platforms were placed in a circle around him, and nine out of the other eleven platforms were occupied by his opponents. As he watched, the last two users spawned on the remaining platforms.  
The users looked around at their competition as the server announced that the game was starting in twenty seconds. Instantly the area where comments appeared filled up with requests of alliances and teams. DiamondBlade didn’t even look at them; he had no intention of allying with anyone. To him, it was every man for himself — that was the whole point of the Hunger Games, right?  
Instead he surveyed the map he spawned in. It was a wasteland made of obsidian, gravel, and stone. There was a volcano in the distance with lava streaming down the sides and collecting in a huge pool around it. As DiamondBlade kept looking around the map, he saw an occasional leafless dead tree, which wouldn't be much help. There was a huge abandoned and ruined village to the left of him, and DiamondBlade reckoned that there would be a few chests located somewhere in there. That’s where I’ll go. The landscape was full of hills of obsidian and stone that DiamondBlade decided to take a look at. Who knows, DiamondBlade thought to himself in real life, there might be chests hidden somewhere there. The spawners were on an island of dirt and cobblestone surrounded by lava, and there were five obsidian bridges leading off the island two blocks thick. There was a spiraling tower in the middle of the island with three stairs leading into it, and DiamondBlade realized that was where the chests were. The chests were there to help the user survive the games, and the chests were usually filled with helpful armor, weapons, and sometimes food and supplies. The sky was red and cloudy, but DiamondBlade didn’t think it looked like it would rain anytime soon.  
Then the server announced that the game would be starting in five seconds. DiamondBlade got ready to sprint and kept his eyes focused on the stairs. 3…2…declared the server. …1…GO!   
A horn blared and all of the users were able to leave the platforms. DiamondBlade leapt off of the platform as hard as he could and hit the ground running. He tried to be the first one up the stairs, but a few users had beaten him up. They were already furiously sorting through the chests, selecting items. DiamondBlade gritted his teeth and threw open a chest, laughing to himself as he found a diamond chestplate, diamond boots, and an iron sword. He quickly grabbed the armor and the sword and also stole two golden apples. Flawlessly moving to the next chest, he flung it open and found three diamond swords and a diamond helmet. Selecting those, he glanced to see if there were anything else good. There were only two cakes, an apple, and an iron helmet, but DiamondBlade didn’t need those. He took one of the cakes and decided to use only one more chest before hiding out from the other users. DiamondBlade skipped the next chest over and opened his third chest. “YES!” DiamondBlade hollered to his computer screen. Inside was a complete set of diamond armor, a glistering melon, and two enchanted bows along with other iron weapons and armor and food. DiamondBlade took the enchanted items and the diamond armor, quickly storing the items in his hotbar and inventory. He put on the chestplate, boots, and helmet, keeping the full set of armor stored away for extra, and dashed away.  
I need to get to that village. DiamondBlade bolted off of the island, shoving another user — DogLover1414 — off of the bridge and into the lava. DiamondBlade chuckled to himself as an angry comment popped up on the screen: You stink, DiamondBlade  
DiamondBlade took a moment to type, Not my problem, LOL before disappearing over a hill. He vaulted over the blocks and crouched down, whirling around as he heard another user appear behind him. He took two seconds to type, Let’s go before drawing his sword. The other user — EnderBoyXII — who had a diamond helmet and boots but iron pants and an iron chestplate grabbed his sword, and a comment appeared from him: Loser!  
DiamondBlade snorted and replied, You should talk, noob. Then he rushed EnderBoy before he could reply, and EnderBoy was barely able to block DiamondBlade’s blade. DiamondBlade never liked playing defense, so he had to keep his attacks tight and fast. But EnderBoy had some pretty good moves too, but he wasn’t as experienced as DiamondBlade. Finally DiamondBlade found an opening in EnderBoy’s attacks, and he lunged forward and broke EnderBoy’s armor. EnderBoy froze and put his sword down as his armor fell beside him, and DiamondBlade had a moment to type, Why don’t you go and practice on some noob, NeverBoy? before piercing the user with his sword. EnderBoy stumbled backwards as his body flashed, rapidly losing HP. DiamondBlade hit him one more time, and EnderBoy fell to the ground. His body flared red one last time, and then he disappeared, dead. Items from his inventory was the only thing that showed that EnderBoy was ever a player.  
DiamondBlade laughed to himself and glanced over the dead user’s inventory. Eh. Nothing good here, he thought. Wishing he could kick EnderBoy, he moved on.  
The server announced that there were nine players left on the server, so someone else besides DiamondBlade had killed someone. DiamondBlade had already disposed of two users; neither of which had put up a good fight. He clambered over another hill and finally reached the ruined village. DiamondBlade ducked through one of the buildings of the village that was still mildly intact — the blacksmith’s — and ran to see if a chest was there. The chest was in fact sitting in the corner, but as DiamondBlade excitedly opened the box and scrolled through the inventory, he saw that nothing was there. Was this thing programmed to be empty, or had another user reached the village before I had? DiamondBlade wondered.  
DiamondBlade shrugged and ran out of the blacksmith’s shop. Suddenly an iron-and-diamond-clad user — KingGhast112387 — burst out from nowhere and immediately started attacking DiamondBlade, proving the latter was correct. DiamondBlade stiffened and instantly moved backwards, forced to play defense. KingGhast kept pressing forward, his diamond sword slashing at the edge of DiamondBlade’s vision. I have to get out of here. I can’t play defense! DiamondBlade threw himself forward in one last attempt to rid KingGhast and then sprinted away, not wishing to die. I might look like a coward, but I actually want to win!  
Nevertheless, KingGhast kept pursuing DiamondBlade, his mind set on killing him. DiamondBlade glanced over his shoulder and sighed. Looks like he couldn’t just run. This guy was so annoying. DiamondBlade quickly dug up a dirt block and jumped onto an obsidian block. As KingGhast moved in closer, DiamondBlade leaped up and placed the dirt directly under him, putting him on a two block tall tower. If he had time to get down and get another block of dirt to make a three block tall tower, then he would, but he didn’t.  
KingGhast112387 came to the foot of the tiny tower and paused. DiamondBlade waited and saw a demand pop up from KingGhast — Come on down and fight me like a real user! Or are you just afraid?  
DiamondBlade felt himself burn with indignation, and he immediately challenged, You hide behind words, KingFat, but let’s see what you can really do!  
I’ll show you who’s fat! Just come on down here to see!  
DiamondBlade gladly leapt off of the tower onto KingGhast’s head, which surprised the user for a moment, but KingGhast was obviously an experienced player. DiamondBlade sprinted about twenty blocks away, and then dashed at full speed towards his opponent. Still in shock, KingGhast put his blade down in a block, but he was too slow. DiamondBlade rammed into the other player hard and used his gathered force to slam KingGhast into the tower, claiming some of the user’s HP. KingGhast’s armor crumbled away, burned red over and over again as DiamondBlade hit him with his diamond sword, but KingGhast wasn’t ready to give up. He jumped to the side as DiamondBlade came in for another hit, interrupting DiamondBlade’s chain of attacks. DiamondBlade staggered for a moment before KingGhast smacked him with his sword, and DiamondBlade’s armor cracked. In real life DiamondBlade gritted his teeth, and he made sure he had the full set of diamond armor in his hotbar, ready to use. DiamondBlade stood there, trying to block KingGhast — who had apparently had extra armor and was now wearing an iron helmet and diamond boots, pants, and chestplate — away from him. Despite DiamondBlade’s weak attempts of defense, KingGhast easily kept hammering away at him. YOU CALL YOURSELF A WARRIOR?! KingGhast commented.  
DiamondBlade didn’t respond.  
At last DiamondBlade’s own armor failed him and he had to crouch there as he tried to put on the new armor as fast as he could. The entire time he was fully aware of his own body flashing red, losing HP quickly. I need to hurry! From experience, DiamondBlade knew how easily a diamond sword could kill an unarmored user.  
Thanks to his wonderful imagination — and anxiety — DiamondBlade could effortlessly imagine how much pain he would be feeling if he was actually the little Minecraft pawn he was controlling now. I’m glad I’m not, DiamondBlade thought. I like facing monsters and everything, but…  
Turning his attention back to the game, DiamondBlade put on the last piece of armor and exploded upwards, knocking KingGhast away from him. Like a furious monster brimming with rage, DiamondBlade fell on his rival and stabbed and sliced at his armor. KingGhast couldn’t even lift his blade back up; within mere moments DiamondBlade had hammered through his armor and was landing blow after blow on his exposed skin. KingGhast shook as he burned red, and then finally popped into nonexistence after one last hit from DiamondBlade. Sighing, DiamondBlade looked at his own HP on his screen. He was shocked to see that he had survived with barely a heart and a half — he would be killed if another user fell on him. He wouldn’t be able to survive another attack. I need to find somewhere to hide. At least, long enough to regain some HP.  
DiamondBlade shivered as he controlled his Minecraft pawn. He looked desperately around the landscape for somewhere he could take refuge in; somewhere that wouldn’t be easily found by the other users. The server announced that there were only five users left in the games, and DiamondBlade, annoyed, thought, Thanks for that helpful information, server.  
DiamondBlade crept around, climbing over the hills and ducking behind various trees — well, at least whatever was left over from them. He spotted two clashing iron-clad users with a few pieces of diamond armor fighting beside a river of lava, and he thought to himself, One of them is gonna either fall in or get skewered. Noobs. What kind of idiot fights by lava?  
Not wishing to be seen, DiamondBlade kept sneaking around, peeking behind corners and looking for concealed chests. Occasionally he would look behind him and make sure he wasn’t being followed. Without warning he tripped over something, and DiamondBlade turned around to see what it was. At first it looked like a peculiar orange-colored block, but upon further inspection, he saw that it was a chest concealed in the very wall of the hill. DiamondBlade bit his lip and opened the chest, sighing in relief when he saw that he was probably the first user to find the chest. There was two iron swords and another bow and a stack of arrows, along with iron boots and ten apples. DiamondBlade took the bow, one sword, and five of the apples, quickly eating them up to get his health back and to get his HP back quicker. It took about two minutes before all of his hearts were filled up again, and somehow he felt safer, having full HP. But why wouldn’t I feel safer?  
Now he felt that he was safe to go fight more users. If he left the responsibility of killing everyone to the users, then nothing would happen. DiamondBlade sighed again and picked up his bow. He ran back where he came, nocking an arrow and aiming at the two users still fighting by the lava. Making sure his arrow would hit true, he let the arrow fly, hitting one right in the head. The user froze, allowing the other to land a hard blow on his chest. The user who DiamondBlade struck stumbled back as his armor disappeared from him and turned to stare at him. A comment popped up from someone named Dragonwing0123 — probably the unarmored user — that said, He’s shooting at us!  
DiamondBlade shot another arrow at Dragonwing0123 before typing back, Who’s us???  
Dragonwing took a step back as the arrow hit him in the chest this time, flaring red as he lost HP. Then another comment appeared from him — but it wasn’t for him. It was for his rival, a girl named ShadowCat. Alliance against DiamondBlade?  
Sure, came the comment from ShadowCat, but I’ll kick your butt after we kill him.  
Why not?  
DiamondBlade gasped to himself in real life and thought, Oh, no. DiamondBlade furiously shot arrow after arrow at the pair that was ready to kill him, but he was mostly focused on ShadowCat. He wanted to wear down her armor, and apparently Dragonwing had forgotten that he was unarmored and was coming after DiamondBlade — who had a bow and a diamond sword — without any protection whatsoever. So then DiamondBlade switched his focus to Dragonwing, wanting to dispose of his enemies quickly. With three more arrows, Dragonwing stumbled back from the hill and fell onto the ground below, losing more HP. DiamondBlade didn’t care whether Dragonwing died or not; he didn’t have time to look down the hill. ShadowCat had reached the top of the hill and had a diamond sword in her own hand, and DiamondBlade had to quickly attack before he had to play defense once again.  
He stored away his bow in his inventory and took out his sword. Give me all you got, DiamondBlade demanded to ShadowCat.  
ShadowCat retreated a few steps before stopping to type back, Are you sure? I hope that I don’t win unfairly.  
DiamondBlade rolled his eyes and thought, She’s too confident. That’ll hurt her. Not bothering to type another challenge to her, he sprinted towards her and started to rain attacks down on her armor. ShadowCat lifted her sword up and blocked many of DiamondBlade’s attacks, and DiamondBlade started to really hope that Dragonwing did die. DiamondBlade jumped to the side and narrowly dodged ShadowCat’s sword. He swung around her and struck her back, knocking the Minecraft user away. ShadowCat stumbled forward and wheeled around to face him, and DiamondBlade could imagine a look of anger smothered on her face. DiamondBlade swallowed and started to advance to her left, and ShadowCat went for the feint. At the last moment DiamondBlade struck her right and caught her off guard. She threw out a random attack, catching him luckily and wore his armor down a bit, but she couldn’t do much against DiamondBlade. Now positioned on the opposite edge of the hill, DiamondBlade forced her down onto the ground — which could hardly be called ground, because the hill was overlooking the lava river that ShadowCat and Dragonwing had been originally fighting beside. ShadowCat made one last attempt to strike at DiamondBlade, but DiamondBlade simply blocked her attack and struck back hard, breaking her armor and leaving her vulnerable to any attack. DiamondBlade cornered her at the end of the hill and allowed himself a few seconds to type, Looks like you’re the loser this time, ShadowCat!  
ShadowCat didn’t move, but the next comment was from her: Think again, idiot.  
DiamondBlade didn’t know what she meant, but at the moment he didn’t care. He rolled his eyes at the computer screen and at ShadowCat and struck her with his blade, causing her to flash red and fall off of the hill. DiamondBlade looked over the edge of the hill and watched her fall into the lava. Her body instantly started to smoke with flames and pulse crimson, and within a few seconds she fell back and disappeared, all of her HP consumed by the molten rock.  
DiamondBlade sighed with satisfaction as the server announced, There are four players left in the game!  
Right…I killed ShadowCat and Dragonwing. Wait a moment… DiamondBlade thought with alarm. There were five of us: Me, ShadowCat, Dragonwing, and probably two others. Then I killed Shadow and Dragon…shouldn’t there be three left? No…he survived!  
DiamondBlade whirled around just in time to see an arrow streak towards his face. DiamondBlade shouted in anger at the computer as he was forced backwards a block. His armor started to crack, and he watched with burning eyes as a now diamond-clad Dragonwing0123 advanced slowly towards him. A bow was in his opponents hand, and he had an arrow nocked aimed at DiamondBlade’s chest. DiamondBlade furiously typed, Couldn’t you have stayed dead?  
Sorry, DiamondBlade, Dragonwing replied, but I’ve got other plans. Dragonwing let another arrow fly, and before DiamondBlade could recover from the second, three more streaked towards him. The first two hit him, but DiamondBlade was able to block the third. But he did realize that he was slowly edging towards the end of the hill, just like ShadowCat. No way am I going out from lava! DiamondBlade thought indignantly.  
Dragonwing got closer and drew his sword. CYA, DiamondBlade. Better luck next time! he typed.  
DiamondBlade lunged forward, furious, but Dragonwing parried his sword with ease and drove his own blade into DiamondBlade’s armor. DiamondBlade growled as his armor burst into shards, and then Dragonwing kicked him off of the edge. DiamondBlade slammed his fist down beside his computer as his character fell from the hill and landed in the lava. Flames flickered on the sides of the screen, making it harder for him to see. DiamondBlade tried to struggle out of the lava, but his progress was slow and his HP was burning away quickly. DiamondBlade just now remembered his food that he had gotten — really, NOW I remember it?! — and tried to eat one of the golden apples. But it didn’t do much to help him; DiamondBlade finished eating both golden apples and the glistering melon, but his HP was still burning away, and he was nowhere near the lava riverbank. His movements were sluggish, and finally his character fell on his side as the last heart turned black, and his screen gave him the ever-wonderful message You Died! 

 

DiamondBlade shoved his computer away and growled colorful words to Dragonwing as his character got ready to respawn. But when he did respawn, he was surprised to find himself in a whole different place than the area he had first spawned in on the Hunger Games server. Where am I? DiamondBlade wondered. He walked forward for a moment and looked around. It looked like he was on the edge of a desert biome and looking into a…a jungle biome. That’s odd, DiamondBlade thought. Why did I end up here?  
DiamondBlade took a couple hesitant steps into the jungle when there was a huge clap of thunder over his house in the physical world. DiamondBlade shot up in his seat and ran to the window in his room. It was pouring rain, and as DiamondBlade stared at the road beyond his house, he saw that the rain was already flooding his driveway and streets. He had been so caught up with Minecraft, he hadn’t even noticed there was a thunderstorm going on. DiamondBlade looked out of the window a few seconds longer and caught a glimpse of a lightning strike — and it seemed a lot closer than he had expected. DiamondBlade took a few steps back and bumped into his bed. He rolled on his side and looked at the time — 8:45. I don’t think I’m supposed to be on this late…  
There was another massive explosion of thunder, and this time it seemed like it was directly over his roof. DiamondBlade trembled and sat down at his desk and computer, his eyes wide as he stared at the screen. He gripped the sides of the desk so tightly that his knuckles turned white when another thunderclap seemed to rock the house. His mother’s voice floated through his room door as she yelled, “Honey, are you okay up there?”  
DiamondBlade shivered and nodded, then remembered that she couldn’t see him. “Y-yeah!” he called back.  
Turning back to his computer, he shakily entered the forest, trying not to focus on the storm overhead. Sighing as he settled into the landscape of the jungle biome, he kept his mind set on Minecraft and did his best to zone out the thunder. So where am I, and why did I spawn here?  
DiamondBlade walked deeper and deeper into the forest, and the trees seemed to get thicker. Ocelots stared out at him from inside the trees, but DiamondBlade didn’t feel like taming them. He just wanted to find out why he had been spawned here. Then he was surprised to see that the dirt was slowly changing into cobblestone and rock, like there was a jungle fortress nearby. Excited, DiamondBlade sprinted through the jungle, following the stone. But before he could reach the fortress, the loudest blast of thunder ripped through the sky, and this time DiamondBlade was absolutely certain it was right over his house. He screamed and fell to the floor, but he didn’t think his family could hear him over the loud thunder. He heard voices downstairs, probably his parents and his two older twin sisters, who were fifteen — just a year older than him. He guessed that his younger brother, who was eight, was fast asleep; he could sleep through everything.  
DiamondBlade’s nerves were on overdrive. He could hardly stand up, but when he did, what he saw even more nerve wrecking than the thunder. His computer was sparking, shivering as it did, and the Minecraft program shuddered and shut down as the computer went blank. Oh no…is it overheating? DiamondBlade wondered, his mind whirling around in a funnel of thoughts.  
He carefully made his way over to his computer and extended a quivering hand towards his still sparking computer. DiamondBlade had no idea why; all of his sanity and intelligence was screaming, NO!!! DON’T TOUCH THE COMPUTER! SOMETHING VERY BAD WILL HAPPEN IF YOU DO!!!  
But his mind didn’t listen to the smart side of him. His curiosity of what would happen won him over, and DiamondBlade’s fingers came in contact with the computer screen — right on the Minecraft icon. Immediately a hot, boiling pain shot up his hand, and DiamondBlade let out a cry as he instantly knew that the computer — and his hands — were being overloaded with electricity. DiamondBlade sank to the floor, his hand still pressed on the face of the screen, throbbing with pain that was slowly numbing him. Why can’t I move my hand? DiamondBlade screamed in his mind. He kept trying to wrench his hand away from the computer screen, but it was like his fingers were pasted to the screen with the strongest super glue in the world. His breath came in shorter bursts as sweat raced down his face. DiamondBlade scrambled up from the ground and tugged on his arm, doing his best to ignore the bursts of pain. But he still couldn’t free his hand, and DiamondBlade started to panic. Am I going to die?!  
Something glowing on the screen snatched away his attention from his hand for a moment. It was the Minecraft icon that his fingers were partially covering; it was spinning in around in a circle and pulsing bright yellow. DiamondBlade gasped, “Oh, that can’t be good,” through his teeth.  
Then the Minecraft icon stopped spinning, but it was still glowing. Then DiamondBlade realized that he couldn’t feel a single thing — he had went completely numb. What’s happening to me! DiamondBlade tried to shout out to his family, but his voice wasn’t working. Finally the last bit of strength left his body, and he slumped onto his desk as he closed his eyes and let the pain course through his veins — he had no more strength to fight it. Every nerve in his body was tingling. He sensed himself slipping away from consciousness — but the strangest thing about it was that he could feel something warm on his back, like the soft heat of the sun…


	2. Welcome to Minecraft

The first thing he noticed was how warm it was. It almost felt like summer…but it couldn’t be. It was still spring — that’s why it was raining so hard. So why is it so warm…and why is my shirt so hot?  
DiamondBlade groaned and shifted in his position on the ground, which caused pain to shoot up his arm; wait, why was he on the ground? And why did it feel so soft and grainy? Okay, this is starting to get freaky, DiamondBlade thought, his eyes still closed. Seriously, what is going on? DiamondBlade started to get nervous. He rolled over onto his back and slowly opened his eyes, not sure of what he wanted to see — and not sure of what he didn’t want to see. As soon as his eyes were open all the way, he yelled in pain and shut them again. The sun was right over him in the sky, and it was way too bright for him at the moment. While DiamondBlade laid there — in the sand, he guessed — he tried to remember the shape of the sun. In the half second he had his eyes open and looked straight up at the sun, he realized that there was something wrong with it — instead of it being a blinding sphere, it was a blinding…square?  
DiamondBlade gasped as a sudden thought shot through his mind. Just as quickly he dismissed it; No way. That can’t be possible. Right? I mean, it’s a computer game….no way.  
He didn’t want to open his eyes again. He didn’t want to find out if it was true or not. But then there was a rustling in the sand beside him, and DiamondBlade stiffened, though he still had his eyes closed. He groaned as something rough, whiskery, and slightly wet nuzzled his cheek. “Ahh…ew!” DiamondBlade spat, finally opening his eyes and pushing away whatever was pushing him. Then he froze as he saw what he had touched. Big brown eyes bored into his, and a huge spotted brown face framed those eyes. DiamondBlade’s heart pounded as he sat up and looked at the rest of the animal. It was big and muscular, and just like the face, brown splotches splattered throughout the shorthaired white fur.   
No… DiamondBlade scrambled to his feet and kept staring at the cow. Instead of the cows he was used to, this one was slightly squarish and rectangular. The cow looked up at the worried kid and let out a long mooooo, as if it wanted to help him.  
DiamondBlade stepped back slowly, and finally he slapped himself to see if he was dreaming. “OW!” DiamondBlade yelped. “Come on, this has got to be a dream. This isn’t real! It can’t be! I can’t…I can’t be in…in Minecraft. That’s…impossible.”  
Then DiamondBlade remembered the lightning that had struck his computer. He remembered touching the screen, and the icon spinning. So maybe it is true. But is that a good thing or a bad thing? DiamondBlade wasn’t sure. He looked at his hands and groaned as he saw that they were also blocky and square-shaped. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” DiamondBlade shrieked at the sky. “I never asked for this!”  
DiamondBlade wasn’t sure why he was so angry. Being part of Minecraft had always kinda been his dream, but now that he was actually in Minecraft…what would happen to him? Was this Survival or Creative mode? Were the monsters going to go after him at night? Most of all…what if he died? Would he respawn or die for real? It was too much for DiamondBlade. He pushed away the cow, who mooed in indignation, and ran into the jungle. Hold on…this jungle looked familiar. DiamondBlade stopped and looked behind him. The cow was lumbering away, its hooves sinking slightly into the sand with each step. DiamondBlade28 held his blocky hands over his eyes to shield the sun and saw little green plants dotting the sand — cacti. It was the strange desert biome bordering the jungle.  
Then maybe the fortress is somewhere near here! DiamondBlade thought excitedly. Maybe he could stay there for the night — the sun was starting to make its way down to the horizon. DiamondBlade didn’t have much time.  
DiamondBlade whipped around and sprinted through the forest until he reached the stone pathway that gradually started to form. When he reached the cobblestone, he turned to the nearest tree and made two fists. “I hope this works,” DiamondBlade muttered under his breath, “because I have no idea what I’m doing.”  
DiamondBlade took a deep breath, lunged towards the tree, and drove a fist deep into the trunk. Surprisingly, DiamondBlade only felt a small sensation of pain, and he swiftly punched it over and over a few more times before the tree groaned and the block of wood he was punching disappeared. DiamondBlade looked at the gap and saw a smaller block of wood revolving slowly in midair. DiamondBlade shrugged and touched the wood, and it instantly disappeared. Something in the back of his mind told him that it was in his inventory now, and DiamondBlade believed that was true. He hammered one more piece of wood down from the now floating tree — which seemed really weird to DiamondBlade, how trees could still be suspended in midair even when the bottom wood block was taken out — and grabbed both pieces of wood from his inventory. Then he broke a few more down to make a sword. Quickly using the a piece of wood to make four wooden planks and then crafting those four into a crafting bench, DiamondBlade placed the bench in front of him and swallowed. I can do this. I play Minecraft all the time. I can craft a sword. No problem.  
Taking his extra pieces of wood, he made two more wooden planks and a stick, and then crafted them into a sword. Before long DiamondBlade was holding a wooden sword, which hurt him a little bit. His username was, after all, DiamondBlade, not WoodBlade. But it would have to do for now. Maybe later he’d get a chunk of stone or iron to make a better sword. Glancing up at the sun that was luckily still visible through the thick jungle tree, he was alarmed to see how rapidly the sun moved across the sky. It was a still a little ways from the horizon, but DiamondBlade still had to craft at least one more sword and three pickaxes — just to be on the safe side.  
Furiously hammering away more and more wood, DiamondBlade crafted as fast as he could, fueled by his giant hope that he could reach the fortress before dark — and hopefully find somewhere to stay the night. At last, sweating and hot, DiamondBlade was holding not just one but two more swords, and the three pickaxes he needed to mine for a home. Looking one more time at the sun that seemed just a few feet away from the horizon, DiamondBlade inhaled and dug up his crafting bench. He put the bench into his inventory, hefted his sword, and ran into the jungle.  
DiamondBlade raced through the jungle, his feet pounding against the cobblestone. His breathing came shallower and his heart beat so hard that he thought it would burst through his chest. He stumbled on a block of cobblestone raised a bit higher than the others, and he tumbled to the ground and groaned. I can’t do this! Climbing back to his feet, DiamondBlade dusted himself off and sprinted away. He saw the spotted yellow fur of the ocelots, just like in the physical world, and he told himself, I might tame some of those tomorrow. At least to scare the creepers away. Through experience, DiamondBlade28 knew that the mottled green monsters were terrified of cats and ocelots. That would be one less monster to worry about — and by now, DiamondBlade was easily convinced he was in Survival. Why?! he screamed in his head.  
Finally the cobblestone led him to a medium-sized fortress shaded by trees, and DiamondBlade slowed to a stop to admire the moss-covered stone that made up the front wall. Looking at the base of the wall, DiamondBlade walked away from the cobblestone path and dug up ten blocks of dirt, just to be on the safe side. If he had to make a wall for himself, digging up stone or cobblestone would take longer than dirt, and DiamondBlade didn’t want to waste precious time. He grabbed five more blocks of dirt and then stored them away in his inventory. He sighed and grabbed his sword again, gulping nervously as he crept into the fortress.  
DiamondBlade found himself walking into a huge room with multiple hallways branching away from it. The inside of the fortress was dark, but as DiamondBlade peered through the blackness, he could just barely make out the faint shape of…a chest! Suddenly filled with hope, DiamondBlade quickly but cautiously made his way to the chest, aware that tripwires rigged to traps could be anywhere. Thankfully he reached the chests safely, and he threw it open and found twenty torches inside along with an apple, a stack of ten stone blocks, and some flint inside. DiamondBlade took all of the supplies gratefully, then promptly dug up the chest and used five of the torches to light up the main room. Once the room was lit with torches, DiamondBlade felt a whole lot safer. He didn’t think he should explore the rest of the hallways until the next morning — if he did it tonight, it would most likely result in his death. But is that a temporary respawning death, or a permanent no-more-life death? DiamondBlade wondered.  
DiamondBlade selected a corner of the lit room and walked over to it. Taking out his fifteen pieces of dirt, DiamondBlade built a small home to live in for the night. He lit the wall of the corner with three of his torches and surrounded himself with dirt. DiamondBlade made sure to leave a one block gap in the dirt wall so he could see out of his new home.  
When DiamondBlade was finally content, he settled back against the wall and waited quietly for the night to come. Because of the torchlight, DiamondBlade knew that no monsters would spawn in the large fortress room — but they were still able to spawn in the dark hallways and whatever lie beyond them. DiamondBlade trembled and sat down, moaning. Now he was free to ponder his thoughts. “Did the lightning send me here?” DiamondBlade whispered. “How will I get back? Will my family miss me? Will they even notice I’m gone?”  
DiamondBlade shook his head and looked down at his hands. He was still getting used to the new look and feel of them. So what am I supposed to do now? Wait for morning? I don’t even have a bed to sleep in… DiamondBlade whimpered slightly and let out a breath through his teeth. I feel like a noob again.  
DiamondBlade stood up and twirled his wooden sword in his hand. Might as well practice…  
Putting one foot behind him, DiamondBlade lunged forward with his sword, attacking an imaginary enemy. He narrowed his eyes and slashed diagonally with his sword, imagining his enemy’s HP lowering. DiamondBlade practiced jabs and slices, aiming for chinks in his invisible rival. Soon DiamondBlade was so caught up in his sword practice that he could actually picture another user in diamond armor — that looked suspiciously like Dragonwing0123 — attacking him. DiamondBlade yelled and attacked Dragonwing in his mind. He saw Dragonwing striking back with his sword, and DiamondBlade blocked the attacks effortlessly. The two users fought each other, wooden sword to iron sword — wait, how was this fair? — with DiamondBlade, outraged at the user who had defeated him in the Hunger Games, launching attacks at Dragonwing faster than he could blink. But in DiamondBlade’s imagination, Dragonwing was better than last time. He blocked nearly all of DiamondBlade’s attacks, and suddenly he thrust himself forward and lashed the side of DiamondBlade’s cheek with his sword. DiamondBlade gasped and fell backwards, landing hard on his back.  
The angry user glowered up at Dragonwing, who walked up to him slowly and silently. DiamondBlade roared and gripped the handle of his sword so hard that he felt splinters form in his fingers. He surged upwards and stabbed the blade into Dragonwing’s throat. Dragonwing’s body screamed red and he fell backwards, and DiamondBlade fell on him like a lightning storm. Within moments, Dragonwing’s HP was consumed, and the user disappeared.

 

DiamondBlade gasped and opened his eyes, surprised to find himself lying on the floor, stiff and cold. His muscles were aching. I must have fallen asleep, DiamondBlade thought, rubbing his head. He put his hand on his cheek, remembering when Dragonwing gashed him there. There was nothing but smooth blocky skin.  
DiamondBlade sat up and looked out of his temporary home. His eyes widened and he instantly crouched down. It wasn’t daytime — possibly not even close yet. There was a zombie in the jungle fortress, wandering around and moaning. Desperately DiamondBlade pulled out a dirt block and covered up the gap in his wall. Once his wall was completely hiding him from the zombie, he sat down on the ground with relief. He could still hear the zombie’s moans outside, and they got louder as the zombie neared his hiding spot. DiamondBlade shut his eyes as the zombie seemed to be right outside his home, even though he knew that the zombie couldn’t reach him. The moans of anguish still reached DiamondBlade’s ears, and he slowly retreated to the back of his hiding spot in nervousness. Then he got angry at himself for feeling that way.   
The moaning kept on for another few minutes, and then it faded away until it disappeared. DiamondBlade waited one more minute before removing a dirt block to peer outside. The fortress was empty, and the interior was slowly getting brighter. Maybe I can go out now. No… DiamondBlade thought, …I should wait just a little longer.  
DiamondBlade sat down and closed his eyes, hoping to get a little bit more rest before sunup. But all he saw in his mind was the lightning and his computer sparking up with electricity. He heard the something rumbling, and his eyes snapped open as a giant explosion of thunder ripped across the sky. He rubbed his eyes and looked outside one more time. This time it was brighter, and DiamondBlade was ready to go. He tore down his wall of dirt and stored them away in his inventory, and then took down the two torches. DiamondBlade ran the perimeter of the fortress room, collecting the torches, and then took out his wooden sword. He wrinkled his nose in disgust. The first thing I’m gonna do is get a better sword. I won’t be known as the noob who fights mobs with a stupid wooden sword.  
Dismissing the idea of exploring the jungle fortress hallways, DiamondBlade ran outside into the jungle biome. Then he froze, suddenly racked with fear. I’m in a jungle biome. Oh no…  
Because of the giant trees, the nighttime mobs were still roaming around freely under the great amount of shade. DiamondBlade found himself standing in the middle of a morning monster party. Skeletons were crouched behind bushes, clacking their teeth together. Zombies stumbled through the trees mindlessly, moaning with their arms outstretched in front of them. Creepers snuck through the thick foliage, looking for a place to detonate. Spiders swung from tree canopies and scaled tree trunks. DiamondBlade even saw a few endermen flash by. The only thing that kept him from screaming out loud was the knowledge that the slightest noise would mean his death.  
DiamondBlade slowly walked through the jungle in hopes that he could reach the desert without any monsters detecting him…but there was no such luck. DiamondBlade rounded a corner and was immediately face-to-face with a zombie. DiamondBlade yelped and shoved past it, causing it to moan and lumber towards him. But then he fell over the same exact block of stone that had caused him to trip before. DiamondBlade stumbled and fell flat on his face, his sword clattering away from him. He lost his breath and scrambled forward, the moans of the zombie getting closer. He reached his sword just in time and flipped onto his back, holding up his sword shakily. The zombie was barely four blocks away from him. DiamondBlade could barely find his voice, but he managed to gasp out, “You…you wanna go? Then…then come on!”  
The zombie let out a moan, but there was a hint of something else in it. It almost sounded like amusement.   
DiamondBlade’s eyes widened. That was enough to clear up his mind. DiamondBlade let out a cry and jumped up, his blade clutched tight. “COME ON!” DiamondBlade repeated, his voice louder and angrier this time. He didn’t care about the other mobs that must have heard him. He didn’t care that the other zombies that might come to help this one. He didn’t even care if the endermen heard him. But no one ever, no, never, laughed at DiamondBlade28.  
DiamondBlade ran at the zombie in a hot rage, aiming for its throat. But the zombie was more agile than DiamondBlade expected. The zombie stepped backwards when DiamondBlade was only a few inches away, making DiamondBlade lose his balance because of his speed. As he fell to his knees, pain exploded through his head as the zombie punched him, and he cried out. He felt his HP lower down as he looked up. The zombie was moaning happily, its claws bared. DiamondBlade growled and thought, I need to be careful — more careful.   
He raised his sword and remembered the feint he used on ShadowCat. DiamondBlade ran at the zombie’s right, and as the zombie got ready to block its right side, DiamondBlade switched his direction and slashed at the zombie’s left flank. The zombie let out a hiss as it flashed red, losing HP. While it was occupied, DiamondBlade closed his eyes and tried to recall the sequence he used on Dragonwing in his dream. Act defeated…and then attack. DiamondBlade swallowed as he realized how dangerous this could be. He needed to look as if he was done fighting, but without losing too much HP. He didn’t know what would happen if he died, and he wasn’t ready to find out. So he slowly inched around the zombie, seeing a tree right behind it. A plan formed in DiamondBlade’s mind, but it too was risky. But I can’t lose this battle…if I get hurt anymore, I won’t be able to stand anymore attacks from the rest of these jungle mobs.  
DiamondBlade almost thought he was experiencing déjà vu of the Hunger Games he was just in. He laughed quietly; and at a time like this, DiamondBlade thought. He backed away from the zombie, his sword held up and shaking as if he was afraid — which he kind of was — and pretended to look panicked as he hit the tree behind him. He lowered his gaze weakly, and the zombie made a noise different then its moaning. It sounded happy and victorious, and it jumped forward, flexing its claws. And that was what DiamondBlade was hoping for. Just as the claws were about to dig into his flesh and kill him, DiamondBlade slid down quickly and laid down flat on the ground as the zombie collided with the tree. But instead of swiftly getting back up and attacking DiamondBlade again, the zombie stood there, facing the tree. “Ha!” DiamondBlade crowed. “Not so easy, is it?”  
The large claws on the zombie’s hands had driven into the tree with its momentum, and it stayed stuck. DiamondBlade cautiously walked around the zombie’s body to look at it, and he grinned as he saw the zombie moaning and trying to free itself. “Sorry, buddy,” DiamondBlade chuckled. Raising his sword above his head with both hands, DiamondBlade drove the blade into the zombie’s back, destroying its HP and killing it instantly. The zombie groaned and disappeared, leaving only XP orbs. “Aw!” DiamondBlade complained. “I was hoping for something better…oh well.”  
As he collected the XP, he felt a strange chill go down his back. What the… DiamondBlade slowly turned around to see a creeper staring at him, hissing. “Oh…no…nice creeper…” DiamondBlade whimpered. But the creeper only hissed louder and started to blink white. Oh…great.   
DiamondBlade tried to stop the detonation process, but the creeper was only seconds until it exploded. There was nothing DiamondBlade could do but run. DiamondBlade gasped and whirled around, barely able to get behind the tree when a loud BOOM exploded behind him. “AHH!” DiamondBlade shouted as the creeper explosion sent him and many other blocks flying through the air. All the jungle mobs that heard the explosion, both hostile and passive, turned around to watch. DiamondBlade slammed into another tree and groaned as he lost more HP, more agony exploding through his body. He crumpled to the ground, dazed. Then he stiffened as something hit the trunk an inch away from his head. DiamondBlade’s eyes trailed to the projectile and felt a shiver course through him as he saw what it was — an arrow. He looked back in front of him and saw a skeleton standing on the edge of the new crater in the jungle, another arrow nocked in its bow. Then the skeleton released it. DiamondBlade caught his breath and held up his sword just in time to deflect the arrow and dove to the side as another one came close behind it. I gotta get out of here!   
DiamondBlade held his sword out in front of him and dashed through the jungle. He slashed down any hostile mob that tried to stop him. He shoved past skeletons and pushed zombies away from him. He even ran past a few more creepers, shouldering aside those as well. DiamondBlade heard explosions behind him, those from the creepers he hit, but he didn’t care. He just had to get away from the forest. His blood pounded in his ears as he saw the sand appear in front of him, but it was still so far away. I need to make it. DiamondBlade felt a surge of adrenaline, and he found the strength to duck under a skeleton’s arrow. He slid under the feathered shaft and dove through the air at the clacking monster, driving his sword through its head and tackled it. The skeleton collapsed under him, flashing red, and disappeared as it died, leaving two arrows, its bow, and XP points. DiamondBlade quickly gathered up the items, storing them in his inventory, and kept running. I’m almost there! DiamondBlade thought, excited. He shot past monsters, his sword arm out to the side so that it grazed every monster on that side he past that was close enough.   
Finally he was on the edge of the jungle, nearly there…when something rammed into his side. “Gah!” DiamondBlade choked out. Something that stung shot up his side as he fell onto his back. What is it now?   
DiamondBlade28 looked up and gasped. A giant spider was standing on his stomach, clicking its mandibles hungrily. Its multiple red eyes stared straight at him, paralyzing him. DiamondBlade laid there, frozen, as the spider raised one of its barbed legs and slashed across his body. DiamondBlade yelled as a burning sensation flared up in his chest. At least it cleared up my mind, DiamondBlade thought grimly as his HP went down a heart. He raised his sword and rapidly jabbed it into the side of the spider before it could strike again. He drove it into the ground and waited until it disappeared. It left behind a spool of thread and a spider eye, but DiamondBlade only took the spider eye before jumping up and running off again, but his new wounds made by the spider slowed him down. DiamondBlade’s breathing slowed — I’m glad it wasn’t a cave spider — but he pushed on. He stumbled into the sand, trudged up a small dune to make sure none of the mobs would follow him, and then promptly collapsed. As soon as he hit the sand, he fainted.

 

Ahh…what happened?  
Was I dreaming?  
Maybe it really didn’t happen…  
Slowly DiamondBlade woke up. For a minute he thought he was back in his bed at home, but when he shifted his position, he felt grains of sand move under him. He groaned — he was still in Minecraft. DiamondBlade sat up and rubbed his arms and side, remembering the spider and the zombie. “What am I doing here,” DiamondBlade sighed to himself. “I don’t belong here…I need to get back home — even though this is pretty awesome…”  
Maybe there will be a village somewhere in the desert, DiamondBlade thought. Might as well go find one. DiamondBlade decided on his decision, even though there wasn’t a big chance there would be a village in the desert. But there was nothing else for him to do, and if there was the smallest chance someone would know how to send him back, it would be a villager. So DiamondBlade stood up, and then remembered the wooden sword in his hand. DiamondBlade raised his eyebrow and looked down scornfully at it. “And I need a better sword.”  
He raised his gaze and scanned the desert landscape. There. He saw a small rock outcrop sticking out from the sand, and he sprinted to it, hoping for resources to make a stone sword and a pickaxe. I’m guessing I don’t have time to find any iron… DiamondBlade looked up at the sky and stared at the sun, which was starting its descent towards the horizon. Nope…not at all. DiamondBlade put away his sword and drew his pickaxe. Taking a breath, he started to mine.


	3. Sweet Desert Dreams

DiamondBlade28 wiped the sweat off of his brow. He had been mining so long that he had pretty much destroyed the rock outcrop. He had in fact found iron ore, but he didn’t have a furnace to smelt them, nor did he want to make one right now. But what he did have was three stone swords and five stone pickaxes, which would be much better than the wooden supplies. But I should keep them, DiamondBlade reasoned with himself, just in case.  
The sun was just starting to touch the horizon, and the mobs were starting to appear, starting with the spiders. DiamondBlade snorted and twirled his stone sword. “It’s not much,” he admitted to himself, “but I can still do some damage.”  
He looked up as he observed the sand and the mobs out in front of him. DiamondBlade squinted and saw the mottled green head of a creeper on the other side of a dune in front of him. DiamondBlade narrowed his eyes and vowed to the creature, “All of you mobs will die at my hands. Now I can show you who DiamondBlade28 really is. You won’t forget me. Bring it.”  
DiamondBlade snarled and darted forward. He quickly climbed the dune and vaulted over the surprised creeper, who immediately started lumbering towards him. “Give me what you got!” DiamondBlade dared. The creeper hissed and lunged. DiamondBlade swung an arc in front of him, grazing the creeper’s skin — or was it scales? I DON’T CARE. DiamondBlade hollered and fell on the creeper, imagining Dragonwing instead. That filled him with anger once again, and DiamondBlade slashed at the creeper so quickly and angrily that the creeper didn’t even have time to try to explode. Within seconds the creeper was dead, leaving a pile of gunpowder and XP. DiamondBlade grabbed the spoils of war and looked behind him. There were even more mobs before, and DiamondBlade saw a few skeletons among the zombies and spiders. “COME ON!” DiamondBlade shouted at the desert mobs.  
Not waiting for the slightest response, DiamondBlade hurled himself recklessly at a zombie, impaling the sword into its back. The zombie flared red and collapsed underneath him. DiamondBlade wrenched the sword out and turned on the next monster, a skeleton. He ducked underneath an arrow and jumped up, his sword seeming to flash in the moonlight. He sliced off the skeleton’s hand and rammed his elbow into its ribs, knocking it down. DiamondBlade growled, “Stay down,” and kicked its head off, killing it. He didn’t want another ‘Dragonwing0123 episode’.   
He wheeled around to face the other mobs, who were now agitated and were making their ways towards him. “Who’s next?” DiamondBlade demanded. Then his blood chilled as a low, haunting chuckle floated around him. What was that? He straightened up, his heart pounding louder than it ever had before. Only one thing can make that noise…no…not now… As the chuckling kept swirling around him like a tornado, the other mobs seemed to retreat. Yes, DiamondBlade confirmed to himself grimly, it’s them.  
Then the laughing abruptly stopped, and the other mobs started to recover from their momentary submission. DiamondBlade allowed himself a second of relaxation, and then groaned when the laughing started again, louder than before. This time it seemed…right behind him.  
DiamondBlade felt all the blood drain from his face, making him look like a ghost. He wanted to scream, get out of there, do anything to get away from the monster he knew was standing an inch away from his back. But he was petrified all the way down to his smallest nerve, and he couldn’t move. DiamondBlade squeezed his eyes shut as the enderman stopped his laughing and started to go even farther into his nightmare — the enderman began to speak to him. “So,” the enderman whispered in his ear, “you have finally arrived.”  
DiamondBlade struggled to find his voice. “What do you mean, I’ve finally arrived?” he squeaked out, bowing his head. He had no intention of provoking the enderman if it suddenly teleported in front of him.  
Yet the enderman kept behind him as it leaned in closer and murmured in DiamondBlade’s ear, “Stop playing dumb, boy. You know what I’m talking about. The Ender Kingdom is waiting for you, you know, like it has for the last two hundred years.”  
“Two hundred years…Ender Kingdom…” breathed DiamondBlade. It all sounded so ancient to him, and as far as what the enderman was telling him, he was clueless. “Please, I don’t know…”  
The enderman screeched and teleported in front of him, and DiamondBlade closed his eyes again and lowered his head down even more. He quickly stored his sword in his inventory, not wanting to hit the enderman by accident. “The Ender Kingdom, you fool!” it roared. “You can’t possibly be the saving hero of the Kingdom, though. You seem anything but extraordinary.” DiamondBlade waited through the few moments of silence, ready to run if he had to, and then the enderman let out a huff and snarled, “I’ll be waiting for you, boy. Until then…sweet dreams.”  
DiamondBlade’s eyes flew open and he raised his head to stare right into the enderman’s eyes, forgetting about provocation. “WAIT!” he shrieked, but it was too late. The enderman raised its long arm and brought it crashing down onto DiamondBlade’s head. Pain exploded throughout his skull, and DiamondBlade sank to the sand. The last thing he remembered before falling into unconsciousness was the blazing violet eyes of the enderman.

 

***

 

Where am I?  
DiamondBlade felt groggy as he regained his senses. He groaned as he struggled to his knees, and his head started to throb. What did the enderman do? Did it kill me? DiamondBlade knew that he was still alive, however, as he stood up. He was still in the desert, but it seemed…different, some how. The details were hazy, and the mobs still wandered around aimlessly. DiamondBlade tensed and reached for his sword — but it wasn’t there in his inventory. DiamondBlade started to panic and looked around for his weapon, but it turned out he didn’t need it. The mobs headed right past him, and they didn’t even notice him. “Oh,” DiamondBlade murmured to himself. “I must be dreaming, then…literally.”  
Maybe I can move faster in dreams than in real life. I can find that village, then! DiamondBlade thought. He crouched and then sprang off of the dune he was standing and instantly started to run as when he landed. He started a steady jog, and then got faster and started to run. Then he moved to sprinting, and soon he was shooting through the sand, imagining himself going even faster. After all, this is a dream, so I can do whatever I imagine, DiamondBlade reasoned with himself.  
But as DiamondBlade got farther and farther away from where his body still lay, he started to slow and stare into the horizon. “Maybe,” DiamondBlade sighed, “there really isn’t a village…”  
As soon as DiamondBlade’s words left his mouth, he heard a faint but harmonious tune being hummed. Where’s that coming from? It was quite different than the enderman’s laugh, and DiamondBlade was relieved to finally hear a friendly sound — or so he hoped. Maybe it’s coming from a village, DiamondBlade told himself.  
He closed his eyes and concentrated on the hum, trying to figure out which direction it was coming from. As he slowly rotated in a circle, he realized that the hum was louder when he turned his head to the north. There it is! DiamondBlade thought. He imagined himself going fast again and he shot off.   
DiamondBlade could imagine sand spraying out behind him in his wake, though nothing was there. Of course not. I’m dreaming. The hum got louder, and DiamondBlade peered through the darkness to see if there were any villages in front of him. There were still none. I’m gonna find one, DiamondBlade thought fiercely to himself. I will find one. I still have hope. I’m not alone here in Minecraft.  
Then something went wrong. DiamondBlade ran past a very strange looking spire of rock made of…was that obsidian? What the — DiamondBlade thought, alarmed. What’s obsidian doing in a desert? And on the surface, nevertheless? And in the desert! What is going on…  
As soon as DiamondBlade cleared the obsidian, the hum instantly changed drastically. Instead of the peaceful tune that had caused relief to flood through him, the music started to turn into a strange melody that had various low notes laced with menace tangled with the higher notes. DiamondBlade felt nervousness bubble up in his heart, and he started to slow down, trying to stop the tune. Yet it wouldn’t stop — the music only changed more and more. Now it sounded more like a song that an enderman would hum.  
DiamondBlade28 looked at the sky and pleaded, “Please…just stop…” But who am I talking to? DiamondBlade thought after he spoke. I guess the person — or thing — making this music…  
The music got louder, and DiamondBlade tried to cover his ears to block out the sound. But it seemed to be in his head, and his ears started to buzz. DiamondBlade yelled and stumbled forward. He started to run again, but this time, he didn’t care where he went. He just wanted to get away from the sound. DiamondBlade started to run out of breath, and he began to gasp as he heard another sound hidden in the song…a familiar, terrifying laugh. It’s the enderman! DiamondBlade screamed in his head.  
There was a flurry of purple particles about fifteen blocks in front of him, and then the enderman appeared in the midst of it. DiamondBlade kept looking at the enderman, though, again failing to remember that he could provoke the enderman by looking into its upper legs and higher. And he was gazing right into its eyes.  
Fortunately, the enderman didn’t seem to care. It just made a strange face at him — a horrifying attempt to smile — and hummed. Now the song came from the monster. DiamondBlade looked at him, his eyes blazing with fear, and turned around and ran. He ran as fast as he could to get away from the enderman and its song. Wake up, DiamondBlade, wake up! he begged to himself. Of course, he did not leave his nightmare. Then I’ll just have to do this the hard way.  
Once again he imagined himself flying across the desert at high speeds, and he rocketed away from the enderman. Then he caught his breath as he started to see lights in the distance. A village! Thank goodness! DiamondBlade sighed, but then he remembered — he was only dreaming. DiamondBlade skidded to a stop and looked back. The enderman was gone, and so was the song. Good. But how far away am I — the real me — from this village? It’ll take me two days, at least! he figured. And I can’t go this fast when I’m awake…maybe I’ll just have to memorize where this village is.  
DiamondBlade shrugged. I’ll figure it out later, he decided and started running again. Before long he reached the desert village. There were a few NPCs roaming around, their arms linked across their chests. There was a villager with long dirty blond hair and clad in a brown robe — a farmer — standing by the well. As DiamondBlade slowly entered the village, the farmer looked straight at him. DiamondBlade froze and told himself, He can’t see me. There’s no way. I’m dreaming. So then why does it look like he can see me? DiamondBlade didn’t know the answer yet. He wanted to find out. He neared the steps to the well and quietly murmured, “Can you see me, farmer?”  
Then, to his utter surprise, the farmer corrected, “It’s actually Plower. My friend’s name is Farmer.”  
DiamondBlade shrieked and then covered his mouth, not wanting anyone else to hear him. Plower winced and walked down the steps towards him. “Sorry if I scared you, DiamondBlade,” he apologized.  
DiamondBlade took a breath and questioned, “First of all, how can you see me? Second of all, where did you learn my name?”  
Plower smiled. Then he surprised DiamondBlade once again by lowering his arms from his chest and put one of his hands on DiamondBlade’s shoulder. “How…”  
Plower rolled his eyes and answered his unspoken question first. “How else do you think we do our jobs?” Plower asked DiamondBlade. “With magic?”  
DiamondBlade grinned, in spite of his complete confusion. He remembered the short discussion he had with Creeper671 about how villagers work. “Honestly, I don’t know.”  
Plower nodded and put his arms down, his sleeves billowing. Then he moved on to DiamondBlade’s first two questions. “You’re in a dream, right?” Plower asked him.  
“Right. Are you dreaming, too?”  
“Sort of,” Plower told him. “I’m not asleep, but I can sort of…see the dreamer. Actually, it depends who it is. That’s just one of the strange things about me. There are other villagers like me, but they don’t tell anyone but us.”  
“Who are they?” DiamondBlade asked.  
Plower chuckled, “I don’t think I’ll tell you that right now. I’ve only just met you.”  
“Ahh. Okay.”  
Amusement glittered in the NPC’s eyes. “One day, DiamondBlade.” Then Plower grew serious. “You are aware at how special you are, right?”  
“Special?” DiamondBlade repeated. “Not really…special as in how?”  
Plower raised an eyebrow and muttered, “That’s a surprise.” He scratched his head and continued, “I would tell you, but that’s a discussion for you directly, not in a dream.” Plower leaned in closer and whispered, “I don’t know who else is listening.”  
DiamondBlade’s eyes widened in unease. “Who else would be listening?” he asked nervously.  
“I can’t say for sure,” Plower replied helplessly. “Zombies, spiders, maybe even endermen.”  
DiamondBlade gulped. He had enough of endermen for one day. “I love a large audience,” DiamondBlade commented dryly.  
Plower laughed and patted DiamondBlade on the back, approving, “Hey, you’re alright. I’ll be waiting, alright?”  
“Waiting?”  
“Well, you’re coming here, right?” asked Plower.  
“Oh,” DiamondBlade said. He didn’t bother to ask how Plower knew of his plans. “Sure, I guess. But…I don’t know how to get here fast enough.”  
Plower shrugged, “No one said about how fast you need to get here. Take your time — but I’ll do my best to help you. Here; when you wake up, you’ll find a mode of transportation waiting for you.”  
DiamondBlade nodded and smiled, “Thank you.” Then he chuckled without much humor. “At least I know I’ll have one friend here.”  
Plower rolled his eyes again and assured him, “I’m sure the rest of the village will want to be friends with you. After all, you have a kingdom that’s been expecting you.”  
“Wait a moment…” DiamondBlade raised his hand for Plower to explain, but the village and Plower already looked hazy and different. They started to fade away, and then DiamondBlade felt the ground fall away from his feet as his dream disappeared.

 

DiamondBlade opened his eyes, completely expecting to wake up in his real body. But he was still in the dream world. “Argh!” DiamondBlade growled. “I just need to wake up already! And…” DiamondBlade slowly stepped around in a circle. “Now where am I?”  
He wasn’t in the desert, that was one fact he was sure of. There was no sand in sight; in fact, it almost looked like he was in a room. A really big room. There were pillars with vines that laced around them. The floor was made of tile, and there were tall and long windows that let in natural light on three sides of the room. But it was dark now, so they weren’t much use. On the side of the wall with no windows, there was a pair of huge wooden doors with two big gold doorknobs on each. There was a long, purple velvet rug with black on the edges that trailed from the doors to a throne set up at the end of the room. It was made of obsidian — that must be real comfortable to sit on, thought DiamondBlade — with hints of gold in the black blocks. That was unusual for obsidian. There were two long tapestries on either side of the throne, and the pictures on both of them surprised DiamondBlade. On the one to the left, there was a picture of an enderman carrying something that looked like a black sphere. But it was the picture on the right that made DiamondBlade’s blood chill. It was a picture of the terrifying Ender Dragon in extremely sharp detail. Why would someone have a picture of that in their throne room? wondered DiamondBlade. I mean, this is a throne room, obviously.  
DiamondBlade was shaken out of thoughts when the doors behind him creaked as they opened. DiamondBlade gasped and darted behind one of the pillars, forgetting that he was in a dream — whoever walked through those doors would probably not see him. DiamondBlade peered from behind the pillar and saw three NPCs walk in — but they definitely weren’t villagers. These NPCs were clad in armor that looked similar to the regular armor of Minecraft users, except they were black and purple. Two of them carried spears. The third one walked ahead of them, and DiamondBlade could easily see that he was in charge. Maybe it was the long violet cape that flowed out from behind him. No…that’s definitely not it, DiamondBlade thought, amused. He could also sense a very powerful aura surrounding the head NPC.  
The three NPCs were in an argument. One of the NPCs holding a spear was angrily snapping, “…that can’t be possible. We can’t survive another attack.”  
The head NPC argued back, “That may be true, but don’t you remember the Prophecy?”  
The NPC who was arguing with the head NPC snarled, “The Prophecy. Ah, yes, the Prophecy. That wonderful Prophecy. That Prophecy that tells of him…that Prophecy that is probably fake!”  
The head NPC stared daggers at the second NPC, while the third NPC warrior started to edge to the side. He obviously didn’t want to be part of this conversation. The head NPC retorted, “What would you know of any legends, Sharpsword?”  
Sharpsword, the arguing NPC, snapped, “Probably more than you, Coalfire.”  
Coalfire, the head NPC, turned around and rolled his eyes. “Remember who’s in charge. That will serve you well.”  
Sharpsword scoffed, “What are you gonna do, report me to the king?”  
“I might just do that.”  
DiamondBlade shivered at Sharpsword’s stubborn attitude. Apparently he wasn’t afraid of…what was Coalfire, anyway? A general? A captain? Maybe even second-in-command of this place? All DiamondBlade knew was that Sharpsword and Coalfire obviously hated each other’s guts.  
Finally the third NPC who hadn’t spoken yet stepped up and pulled the two NPCs apart. He burst out, “Do you really want the king to see us arguing — I mean, to see you, Coalfire, arguing with this idiot here? That won’t look very good.”  
Sharpsword spat, “IDIOT?!”  
The third NPC ignored Sharpsword and continued, “Please, just stop arguing. Coalfire, really, it’s up to you to give us orders. What do you think we should be doing? Waiting around for another attack from them?”  
Them… wondered DiamondBlade. Who’s ‘them’? Monster mobs? Other NPC kingdoms? Then, remembering the strange tapestries, DiamondBlade wondered if maybe this kingdom was at war with…endermen.  
Coalfire sighed and stared at the obsidian throne that was still empty. “Goldenheart, you’ve been so faithful to me all these years…I mean, faithful to the king and I…but I’m afraid I still don’t have all the answers. These raids and attacks are starting to become too much for us to handle. Maybe we just have to…hope.”  
“Hope?” hissed Sharpsword. “Hope in what? Hope in the Warrior? It’s just a legend, Coalfire. Listen, I may not like you much…” — Coalfire gave Sharpsword a sour face at this — “…but because of my…erm…respect for you, I don’t want to see you struggling with a false hope. And then, when that hope fails you, you’ll be even worse than now. We can’t trust in some old legend. We have to trust in our own abilities.”  
DiamondBlade was starting to get overwhelmed. Why was he here, eavesdropping on these NPC warriors? Was he sent here to learn something? I just want to get back to my own body, DiamondBlade complained in his mind. I need to get to that village. Who knows how long I’ve been sleeping?  
DiamondBlade glanced out from behind the pillar again. The NPCs were starting to talk in lower voices, and he couldn’t hear much of what they were saying. I guess I’m done here.   
As if his mind heard what he was thinking — which it was — he felt himself start to fade away. The throne room swirled away into nothing, and darkness crashed down on DiamondBlade. I’m waking up, DiamondBlade thought, distorted. And as his mind returned to the waking world, he felt the warm sand against him once again.

 

***

 

The first thing DiamondBlade felt was his head in enormous pain, like he did in his dream, except about ten times worse. “Note to self,” DiamondBlade grunted to himself through gritted teeth, “never get in a fist fight with an enderman. Ow.”  
He sat up and looked at the sky. The sun looked like it had risen about ten minutes ago, and DiamondBlade felt a stab of urgency. He had been asleep way too long! He didn’t have much time to get to the village…unless, of course, Plower actually had sent some ‘mode of transportation.   
DiamondBlade was still lying on the sand, completely exposed to mobs. It was a wonder that he hadn’t been shredded during the night. Maybe the enderman who knocked him out had commanded the other nighttime mobs to stay away from him. If so, why would the enderman protect him? It had sounded like the enderman had personally risen DiamondBlade from boy nuisance to arch nemesis. And how did the enderman even have power to do that? As far as DiamondBlade knew, endermen couldn’t really command other mobs, hostile or passive. Maybe it was different now. But what had changed? Maybe it was just on this server? DiamondBlade had to figure it all out — and he had a feeling many answers would be lie in that village.  
Speaking of which, what did Plower send to me?  
DiamondBlade stood up and looked around. Then he heard a snort or sniffle of some kind behind him, followed by a bout of neighing. “Ah, sweet! Is that what I think it is?” DiamondBlade grinned. He turned around to see a beautiful brown and black mare with dappled white spots. Her features seemed more real, now that DiamondBlade was actually in the game. The mare snorted and pawed the ground. “I love this server update,” DiamondBlade sighed, stroking the mare’s mane. The mare looked at him happily, and DiamondBlade noticed her eyes. They were blazing blue, which surprised DiamondBlade. He didn’t know of many horses, both Minecraft and in the real world, with blue eyes. They look like the color of the sky at dawn, DiamondBlade thought. That’s what I’ll call her — Dawn.  
DiamondBlade looked at his new horse and smiled, “Hello, Dawn.”  
Dawn shook her head and snuffled at him, as if she liked her new name. DiamondBlade smiled and swung himself onto Dawn’s back — which was saddled, which surprised DiamondBlade. There was also a set of reins on her muzzle and trailed down the back of her neck to DiamondBlade for him to hold on to. I need to find out how Plower was able to send this horse to me. And he will tell me, DiamondBlade growled to himself. He needed answers — now.  
DiamondBlade patted Dawn’s flank and called, “Giddyup, Dawn!”  
Dawn bucked and neighed, and DiamondBlade had to tighten his grip on the reins to avoid falling off the mare. He had a moment to wonder, How fast can she go on sand? before she shot off into the desert almost as fast as DiamondBlade had gone in his dream — which was pretty darn fast. DiamondBlade yelped and hung on as if his life was about to end. I have to steer her towards the village. I just hope I remember the way.  
Soon DiamondBlade got the hang of it, and he thought he had never felt anything as amazing as the feeling he got as he drove Dawn across the sand.


	4. Shade

The wind blew DiamondBlade’s light chestnut-colored hair away from his face. DiamondBlade was glad for it — he didn’t want to crash dawn because his sight was interrupted with his long wisps of hair. “Come on, Dawn,” DiamondBlade urged, “faster!”  
Dawn let out a huff and tried to gallop faster, but DiamondBlade didn’t think it would really make a difference. The sun had reached its peak already and was starting to go down, and DiamondBlade started to think that he had already driven Dawn to her limits. Now he was trying to get her to go even farther, and he felt bad about it. He knew the sand was slowing her down. He didn’t want to be the reason for the death of a horse. DiamondBlade changed his mind about going quickly, sighed, and pulled on the reins, slowing Dawn down. He said soothingly, “It’s alright, Dawn. You can take a break.”  
Dawn huffed again and eagerly slowed down. As soon as she was at a complete stop, she fell to her knees and put her chin on the sand, neighing softly. Her rider stepped off of her and sat down on the sand. DiamondBlade twisted his jaw and apologized, “I’m sorry. I don’t have any water. If we can get to the village soon, I’m sure they’ll let you take a drink there.”  
DiamondBlade didn’t really know if Dawn understood him, but it seemed like his words had given her a goal to work towards. Dawn’s sky-blue eyes narrowed and she jumped back up, shaking herself and snorting. She swung her head to look at DiamondBlade and motioned to her saddle, neighing.  
“Are you sure?” DiamondBlade asked, worried. “I don’t want to work you too hard or anything — ”  
Dawn shook her head again and gestured to her saddle urgently. “Alright,” sighed DiamondBlade. “If you think you’re ready.” He ran over to Dawn and jumped back into her saddle, ordering, “To the village, then.”  
Dawn dipped her head and reared, and thankfully this time DiamondBlade was ready. Dawn landed on her front hooves nimbly and immediately fell into a steady galloping rhythm. The beat of her hooves pounding the ground started to sound like a drumbeat, and if DiamondBlade hadn’t been riding her, he would have fallen asleep. But he kept himself awake and looked at the sun again. It was still slowly going down. DiamondBlade shook his head and focused on the land ahead of him. He was doing his best to remember where he went in his dream. Right now he was looking for the obsidian outcrop.  
Suddenly Dawn halted abruptly, nearly throwing DiamondBlade off. DiamondBlade shouted, “What — ” before slamming into Dawn’s neck and rocking backwards. He furrowed his brow in frustration and protested, “Dawn…”  
Dawn looked at him, worry lacing her blue eyes. “What’s wrong?” DiamondBlade asked her quietly.  
Dawn let out a frightened bray. DiamondBlade grimaced and patted her. “I wish you could tell me — ” DiamondBlade froze. A sound that DiamondBlade easily recognized filled his ears. He moaned, “Oh, no…”  
It was the song that the enderman hummed, and this time, it wasn’t the soft, peaceful tune that it had started out as. This time it started as the real music — the frightful melody full of haunting nightmares and evil. And DiamondBlade was certain that Dawn could hear it too. “Come on, Dawn,” DiamondBlade breathed. “Ignore it. We have to keep going.” At least I know where we are, now.  
Dawn looked at DiamondBlade nervously. She neighed quietly and shook her head. DiamondBlade begged, “Please, Dawn. Don’t do this. The village…I know where we are.”  
Dawn’s eyes grew dark, but she turned away and slowly kept running, although DiamondBlade could feel her trembling. DiamondBlade swallowed and urged her on. Everytime she tried to stop or bolt away, DiamondBlade reassured her with soothing tunes. It seemed to help her, if only momentarily. But it still paid off; soon they reached the obsidian formation. And, as DiamondBlade expected, the same enderman was waiting for them, its eyes blazing. Dawn let out a shriek and neighed, her hooves anxiously skittering in the sand. DiamondBlade patted her and leaned in closer to her, muttering, “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”  
Dawn shivered and retreated a few steps. DiamondBlade glared at the enderman, knowing that this enderman probably wouldn’t be easily provoked. And DiamondBlade was right. The enderman only stared back, not attacking, although DiamondBlade did see that it was starting to shake. DiamondBlade let out a breath and jumped off Dawn. He lowered his head and reached inside his inventory, making sure the stone sword was still there. It was. DiamondBlade smiled slightly and thought, Good. If I have to, I’ll have a weapon right there.  
The enderman snarled as DiamondBlade neared. It screeched and hissed, “You were brave to come back here — not to mention that you are now fully present. Now I can fully do away with you.”  
DiamondBlade fumed, “Do away with me? I’m not helpless, you know.”  
DiamondBlade forced himself not to cringe as the enderman shrieked and made a fist. DiamondBlade knew just how hard an enderman could hit. The enderman challenged, “Helpless? I never said you were helpless. I’m just glad you’re still able to fight, because I don’t want to win unfairly.”  
DiamondBlade’s eyes widened. That sounds like ShadowCat! Is everything that happened in the past Hunger Games going to happen here? Then DiamondBlade had a sudden thought that made him queasy. Maybe the last Hunger Games I played in was meant to…help me. DiamondBlade inhaled and slowly let it out. “You won’t win,” DiamondBlade promised, “but I’m not asking for a fight right now.”  
The enderman snapped, “Then why are you here, boy? I don’t think you came here just to see me again.”  
Frankly, I was hoping I would never see you again, DiamondBlade mumbled to himself. “I just need to get to a village,” DiamondBlade explained carefully. He didn’t want to give out too much information to this enderman. “I’m hoping too…” DiamondBlade’s voice trailed off. The enderman didn’t need to know why he was going to the village.  
The enderman chuckled, and DiamondBlade realized that the hum had stopped. He risked a look at Dawn, and he was relieved to see that she was still there, her tail swishing back and forth nervously. DiamondBlade gave her a reassuring smile and looked back at the enderman. The enderman began to shake again, and DiamondBlade took a step back. Oops. Thankfully the enderman exhaled and stopped shaking, but it still looked downright murderous. “You’re lucky I’m not easily offended like my brothers,” the enderman told DiamondBlade angrily. “Now, keep going. Yes, I’d like to know what you’re hoping to do. Tell me,” it insisted.  
“N-no, I’d rather not.”  
“Why?” purred the enderman. “Scared? You can trust me.”  
DiamondBlade felt horrified at the thought of trusting the enderman. He protested, “What reason have you given me to trust you?”  
The enderman retorted, “What reason have I given you to not trust me?”  
“I…” DiamondBlade struggled for an answer, but the enderman had a good point. The enderman had done nothing but hum and talk to DiamondBlade — well, talk about fighting with him, but the enderman hadn’t attacked quite yet. What was he supposed to say, that he wasn’t supposed to trust the enderman because of the mere fact that he was an enderman?  
The enderman nodded slowly, satisfied. “You see? I’m a good enderman. I won’t hurt you,” it smiled.  
“I’m supposed to believe that?” DiamondBlade demanded. Just then he remembered the dreams he had. And how did I even get to the point of dreaming? The enderman! “You’ve already attacked me!” DiamondBlade yelled. “You knocked me out! There; that’s why I won’t trust you.”  
The enderman looked hurt. “Come now, that wasn’t me. I wouldn’t do that…at least, not that quickly.”  
More like ‘I would do that, but in a much more dramatic way’, DiamondBlade thought angrily. “Oh, really?” he responded. “So then why are you here?”  
“To wish you luck on your ‘life changing adventure’,” the enderman replied sarcastically.  
“Right.”  
The enderman huffed and complained, “I can do something nice for once. Why do all you stupid users and NPCs think that all enderman are bad?”  
“Because you all are!” DiamondBlade shouted back.  
“No! I’m not. Really. I just help other endermen kill defenseless NPCs very violently occasionally, that’s all.”  
“Not bad at all.”  
The enderman sighed and crossed its long arms. “Fine,” it snarled. “If you think that I’m evil, then I’ll be happy to oblige.” Before DiamondBlade could realize what the enderman was saying, the enderman lunged forward and slammed its fist into DiamondBlade’s stomach. DiamondBlade gasped and flew backwards, slamming into the obsidian outcrop. Dawn shrieked as DiamondBlade flashed red and lost HP. DiamondBlade moaned and fell to the floor weakly. He looked up at the enderman with hurt in his eyes. He hadn’t expected the enderman to actually fight him. And this is what you get for almost trusting an enderman, DiamondBlade scolded himself.  
The enderman walked over to him, taking its time. “You know,” the enderman remarked thoughtfully, “this does feel better than humming all the time. I might actually enjoy this.” With that, the enderman bent down and jammed another punch on DiamondBlade, sending the user skidding back a few feet in the sand.  
DiamondBlade wheezed and stood up shakily. He felt his HP lower down, and he knew that there was no way he could win this fight. Nevertheless, he wanted to get at least one attack in. He drew his sword and stared at the enderman. “Do you want to fight?” DiamondBlade challenged. “Then come over here and fight!”  
The enderman screeched and teleported away. DiamondBlade anticipated that it would appear behind him, and as soon as he heard the enderman appear behind him, DiamondBlade swung around and rammed his sword into the enderman’s side hard. The enderman yowled and teleported on top of the obsidian formation. Dawn nervously got behind DiamondBlade, wailing softly. DiamondBlade hushed, “Shh. Not now.”  
The enderman screamed, “You know you cannot win this, fool! You are asking for your inevitable death early!”  
DiamondBlade hefted his sword and purposely provoked, “You’re stalling. Come on down and talk.”  
The enderman answered steadily, “I’d be glad to.”  
This time, instead of teleporting, the enderman promptly jumped off of the obsidian and landed in front of DiamondBlade. DiamondBlade quickly swung his sword again, aiming for its head, but the enderman held up its hand and blocked DiamondBlade’s sword with its bare hand. “How did you…” stammered DiamondBlade, but he didn’t have enough time to finish his statement. The enderman howled and kicked DiamondBlade away. DiamondBlade flew into the air, losing even more HP. I’m going to die soon! DiamondBlade thought with fearful certainty. He landed on his feet and stopped himself from going any farther. “Maybe I can’t win,” DiamondBlade shouted at the enderman, “but I refuse to lose.”  
The enderman hissed, “Then you are foolish as well as stupid.”  
DiamondBlade narrowed his eyes and rushed the enderman. He let out a battle cry as he held his sword above his head. The enderman braced itself and waited for DiamondBlade to reach it, but DiamondBlade surprised the enderman and jumped onto Dawn. “You are going to run?” the enderman exclaimed in shock. “You coward!”  
DiamondBlade countered, “No, I’m not a coward, enderman.” He twirled his sword and then hurled it straight at the enderman with deadly speed and accuracy. Not only that, but DiamondBlade had caught the enderman in surprise. The sword rocketed towards the enderman and hit true; it hit the enderman right in the throat. The enderman shrieked and flared red, teleporting away. In that moment DiamondBlade squeezed Dawn’s side and shouted, “GO!”  
Dawn neighed and ran off, also wanting to get away from the terrifying enderman. But as they rode off, DiamondBlade heard the enderman scream, “You may have won this time, but I swear — you will never be free of the wrath of Shade!”  
It’s true, DiamondBlade thought as they got farther and farther away from Shade the enderman and closer and closer to the village. I’ve escaped this time, but I won’t be so lucky next time.


	5. The Village

The sky was rapidly getting darker. DiamondBlade mentally slapped himself as he realized that his fight with Shade had stalled them and cost them valuable time. “I’m sorry, Dawn,” DiamondBlade muttered to his horse. “We probably won’t make it tonight. Looks like you won’t have water anytime soon…”  
Dawn snorted and neighed, and DiamondBlade wasn’t sure whether it was because she was mad at him or was trying to say that it was alright. Whatever Dawn was trying to say, it didn’t matter, because he still felt bad either way. DiamondBlade shook his head and urged, “Come on, Dawn. We need to cover as much ground as we can.”  
Dawn let out a sound that almost sounded like a sigh, but she pushed herself on. DiamondBlade squinted ahead and felt his heart skip a beat. He could see lights! “Dawn!” he gasped. “I can…I can see the village! We can make it!”  
Energetically, Dawn neighed and kept galloping. DiamondBlade realized that she was going faster than usual. He beamed and laid his head on the horse’s neck, letting himself fall into the rhythm of her running. Without warning, DiamondBlade felt a wave of exhaustion crash onto him. “Will you be alright on your own? I need to close my eyes for a bit.”  
Dawn snorted and nodded. DiamondBlade nodded tiredly and whispered, “Good girl.”  
He closed his eyes and fell asleep — but it wasn’t a deep sleep. Something kept him in that area between being awake and being asleep. Well, now I can think about all that’s happening, DiamondBlade told himself.  
So what had happened, anyway? DiamondBlade decided to start from the beginning. My computer probably overheated with some lightning surge and transported me to Minecraft. Then I get a stupid run-in with a bunch of monsters and an enderman. I have weird dreams about a villager named Plower and some kingdom. Then I get into a fight with Shade. No one would believe this if I told them what’s been happening to me…  
He thought of his family — his parents, his older sisters, his younger brother. Would they be missing him? What was going on back in the real world? DiamondBlade sighed, “I need to get back. I don’t now what’s happened.”  
In front of him Dawn snickered and neighed. She sounded indignant. DiamondBlade chuckled and shook his head. “It’s not you, Dawn. You’re cool. It’s just this whole thing…I’ve always wanted to do this, but now that I am…”  
Dawn glanced at him for a second, and then turned her head again, snorting. I love those eyes, DiamondBlade smiled. Nothing like them.  
The rider and his horse rode on in silence, getting closer to the village with every stride. But DiamondBlade started to get worried when the sun’s glow finally disappeared and the large golden sphere sank down into the horizon. The moon rose, casting the world in a dim, silvery light. The mobs started to appear, and DiamondBlade saw the gleaming red eyes of spiders around them. He whispered to Dawn, “Just a bit more, Dawn. Then we’ll be safe.”  
Dawn nodded confidently and kept galloping, hardly fazed by the monsters around them. DiamondBlade wondered, How could she be so sure of herself? There are tons of mobs around us, and yet…she just seems to know. She knows that she can take care of herself and me. She knows that she can reach the village. She’s so sure of her talents…and that’s good. But what about me? I’m still doubting myself. I don’t think I could have reached the village alive without Dawn. No, I couldn’t have reached the village without Plower.  
DiamondBlade remembered his new villager friend, Plower, and his strange ability to see the subjects of dreams. How strange…he needs to tell me how he could do that.  
A high-pitched wail wrenched DiamondBlade out of his thoughts. DiamondBlade gasped as Dawn bucked underneath him and whinnied. DiamondBlade asked, “What is it, girl?”  
Dawn pointed with her muzzle at something ahead. DiamondBlade looked around her, half expecting an enderman, but it wasn’t. It was a skeleton with an arrow nocked in its bow. DiamondBlade caught his breath as the skeleton narrowed its eyes and pulled the arrow back farther, getting ready to shoot it. DiamondBlade shouted, “Duck!” right before the skeleton let go of the arrow. Dawn instantly dropped to the floor, pulling down DiamondBlade with her. The arrow flew half an inch over DiamondBlade’s head, grazing his hair. DiamondBlade gulped and dismounted her, muttering, “Geez. I don’t think I can take much more of this.”  
DiamondBlade drew his second stone sword — he had thrown his first one at Shade and didn’t stop to get it — and got ready to rush the skeleton. “Dawn,” DiamondBlade warned, “don’t get up. Just wait there, and if you see any other monsters, neigh. Got it?”  
Dawn whinnied again, but this time it sounded encouraging and happy.  
“Good!” DiamondBlade crouched and kept his eyes focused on the skeleton’s bow and arrow. There was another arrow ready to fire, and DiamondBlade had to keep his timing just right. “Ready…and…” DiamondBlade whispered. Then the skeleton let the arrow go. “Now!” DiamondBlade shouted to himself. He swiped the sword in an arc in front of him, hitting the arrow and deflecting it towards the skeleton. DiamondBlade grinned, hoping to see the arrow pierce the skeleton’s skull and deal some damage, but it simply flew by its head — that was thanks to DiamondBlade’s terrible sense of direction. He complained, “Come on!”  
The skeleton seemed to take DiamondBlade’s complaint as a challenge, and it excitedly drew three more arrows and nocked them all at once. “Holy — ” DiamondBlade stammered, “…how…it can’t do that!”  
The skeleton clacked at him as if it was saying, I can’t? Watch me. Then it released the string, and all three arrows flew at him. DiamondBlade blinked and swerved to the side, narrowly avoiding the first arrow. He nimbly knocked one out of the sky and dodged the last one. DiamondBlade stood up and glowered the skeleton. “Do that again,” he dared.  
The skeleton clicked at him and drew another arrow. DiamondBlade shouted and charged at the skeleton. Apparently the monster didn’t expect him to be so reckless like that, because DiamondBlade was able to chop off one of its arms, preventing it from shooting any more arrows. The skeleton flared red and stumbled back. It raised its bow to try and hit DiamondBlade with it, but DiamondBlade easily fended off its weapon and slashed at it again. The skeleton turned red and fell to the ground, disappearing once DiamondBlade stabbed its skull with his sword. It left behind two arrows and its bow, which DiamondBlade eagerly picked up along with the regular XP orbs. He stored his sword in his inventory and looked at the bow. Two arrows, DiamondBlade thought scornfully. I have terrible aim. I should probably enchant this with Infinity so I can keep shooting as many arrows I want.  
Sighing, DiamondBlade put his new bow and arrows away and jumped on Dawn. “Let’s go,” he growled. “I don’t want anymore run-ins with monsters.”  
Dawn seemed happy to oblige. She immediately started running after DiamondBlade got settled in. The lights got bigger, and DiamondBlade started to make out the shapes of the village homes and farms. He sighed, “Almost there.” And then I’ll find some answers — after getting some well-earned sleep…

 

DiamondBlade and Dawn reached the village soon after the encounter with the skeleton. The villagers were roaming around, planting crops and doing their jobs, but they quickly stopped to stare at DiamondBlade and his horse when they rode in. DiamondBlade narrowed his eyes and jumped off of Dawn. He held her reins and pulled her along with him, mumbling, “Stay quiet, Dawn.”  
Dawn neighed quietly, but she was silent after that. DiamondBlade led her into the center of the village and stopped at the well. By now many NPCs had gathered around them, whispering quietly amongst themselves. DiamondBlade felt sheepish as he led Dawn up the well and tied her reins to the well. He had never felt like this when he was regularly playing the game. He didn’t feel so…weird around these villagers. “Go ahead and drink,” DiamondBlade told her in hushed tones.  
Dawn snorted at him thankfully and dipped her head in the well, gulping up the cool water. While the horse was occupied, DiamondBlade slowly walked down the steps and held up his hands. “Hi,” he called out carefully. “I’m DiamondBlade28, a…a Minecraft user.”  
The villagers didn’t respond until one little bold boy stepped up and yelled, “No, you’re not! You’re not a — ” The boy’s voice was cut off when one of the older villagers immediately covered his mouth with his hand. “Shh,” the villager rebuked the child, looking anxiously at DiamondBlade. “He doesn’t know we can talk!”  
Oh, don’t I? DiamondBlade remembered Plower. I’m quite familiar with your behaviors. He started to scan the villagers to see if Plower was somewhere there. He found the farmer leaning against the wall of a house. Plower’s eyes met DiamondBlade’s, and the farmer smiled and gave him a small but knowing wave. DiamondBlade nodded back to him, hoping none of the other villagers saw.  
The attention was completely on him. No one spoke. DiamondBlade cleared his throat and declared, “Listen, I…I need some help. What that young boy said is true. I’m not really a user. I’m different.”  
One of the villagers stood forward and agreed, “We know that. You don’t have the same aura as regular users do. What are you? Are you some sort of new monster?”  
DiamondBlade paled as the rest of the villagers gasped. “No!” he replied quickly. “I’m not a monster. I’m not any sort of mob. Well, I kind of am…” He didn’t know how to explain how he was literally in the game. DiamondBlade looked helplessly to Plower for help, but the villager lowered his head and frowned. Looks like this was DiamondBlade’s fight.  
The villagers eyed him warily. The blacksmith pushed past the other villagers and pointed to DiamondBlade. “Tell us where you came from…DiamondBlade28.”  
DiamondBlade sighed. That was one story he didn’t really feel like telling. “Well,” DiamondBlade began, “it’s a little complicated. I used to be a regular user until somehow I…I was transported into the game. So…yes, I’m a user, but I’m also…fully alive, I guess.”  
This brought silence followed by excited murmuring from the villagers. What now?DiamondBlade could hear portions of whispers from the crowd:  
“He’s finally here…”  
“The Warrior…”  
“No more endermen…”  
“He’ll save the kingdom…”  
DiamondBlade’s eyes widened as he heard what the villagers were saying. What did they mean, ‘he’ll save the kingdom’? Who was ‘the Warrior’? Was that him? DiamondBlade noticed that Plower started to look a little nervous as the murmuring grew louder, and he looked at DiamondBlade with wide eyes. Talk to them, he mouthed. DiamondBlade creased his eyebrows in an arc and held up his hands with his palm upwards in a helpless gesture. What should I say? DiamondBlade mouthed back. Plower groaned and slapped his forehead. He moved his hands in a circular motion, as if saying Go on.  
DiamondBlade rolled his eyes and interrupted the villagers. “Whoa, hold on. Explain this to me. What are you all talking about? Who is ‘the Warrior’? I’m really confused; I don’t belong here. You need to tell me what’s going on.”  
The villagers stared at him. “You mean,” said the blacksmith, “that you don’t know the Prophecy of the End?”  
DiamondBlade drew in a breath and chuckled nervously, “Oh, that doesn’t sound very pleasant.”  
The blacksmith crossed his arms. “It is and it isn’t at the same time. And anyway, it’s not this village’s Prophecy, anyway. It’s the Prophecy given to kingdom in the Black Mountain — the Ender Kingdom.”  
And there was that name again. The first enderman that he had met mentioned it before, and now that he thought about it, Shade was probably hinting about the Ender Kingdom — whatever that was — when DiamondBlade ran into him. And plus that, he had actually been inside the throne room of a castle. Maybe that was the throne room of the king of the Ender Kingdom! DiamondBlade thought with a start. “The Ender Kingdom,” DiamondBlade repeated. “I’ve heard about that from…from someone. Can you tell me what that is?”  
The blacksmith shook his head. “No, I can’t. Not that I won’t, but because I really can’t,” he explained. “But I’m sure Reader will know something about it.”  
“Reader?”  
“Our librarian. He’s over there, in the…well, in the library. Plower!” the blacksmith called.  
DiamondBlade’s friend started and looked at the blacksmith. “Yep?”  
“Show our confused friend around. Then you can take him to Reader when you’re ready. I’m sure DiamondBlade would love some explanations.”  
Relieved to finally spend time with someone he knew, DiamondBlade sighed. Plower flashed him a smile and nodded at the blacksmith. “Okay. Should I take him to the Head afterwards?”  
The blacksmith shrugged and agreed, “It would be a good idea to take him to the leader of this village, so yes. But it’s nighttime, so actually…at the end of your tour, take DiamondBlade to your house — you wouldn’t mind him sleeping with you for a night, right? It would be a better idea for DiamondBlade to meet Reader and the Head tomorrow.”  
Plower nodded and replied, “I wouldn’t mind that at all.” DiamondBlade grinned at the farmer, who beamed back.  
The blacksmith nodded and looked at DiamondBlade. He spread his arms, gesturing to the other villagers. “You’ll meet the rest of them later. For now, follow Plower — who will introduce himself on his little tour — around. He’ll show you the village. Oh, and he’s our head farmer, too.”  
Plower winked at DiamondBlade and said to him quietly, “We’ve already met.”  
“What?” asked the blacksmith, not hearing.  
Plower waved his hands. “Nothing. Come on, DiamondBlade.”  
As DiamondBlade and Plower passed the blacksmith, the older villager put a hand on DiamondBlade’s shoulder and smiled, “My name is Iron, by the way. Welcome to our village.”  
DiamondBlade dipped his head and asked Iron, “Are you always this kind to passing users?”  
Iron’s face darkened. “No. Not at all. Usually they just storm through villages, raid the blacksmith chest for our own supplies, and then run right back out. Some of them even steal our crops. But you, DiamondBlade,” Iron said gently, “you are not a regular user. You’re special, remember?”  
DiamondBlade looked down and sighed, “So I keep hearing.”  
Iron patted DiamondBlade on the back and walked back to his shop. As soon as Iron left, the rest of the villagers seemed to take a cue and dispersed into small groups. Because it was nighttime, they were all headed to their homes. It would probably be easier if I had arrived in the day, DiamondBlade thought with a yawn.  
Plower noticed him and worried, “Ah, are you tired?”  
“No,” lied DiamondBlade. “Sorry. So, where are we going first?”  
Plower smiled, “I’m showing you the main garden of the village, where I usually work. There are multiple other crop fields scattered around this village, but they are much smaller. And, as you can probably see, this is an unusually large village. I’d say it would be one of the biggest ones.”  
“Must make you feel special,” remarked DiamondBlade.  
The NPC shrugged. “Not usually.” Plower glanced at DiamondBlade with his dark green eyes. “So, DiamondBlade,” Plower began, “where were we?”  
“What?”  
“In your dream. What is it that you want to know?”  
“Oh,” said DiamondBlade. “Er…right…”  
Plower suggested, “You wanted to know how I saw you in your dream and how I learned your name, right?”  
DiamondBlade nodded. “That’s right. Can you tell me how?”  
Plower sighed, “Well, like I said, it’s just a gift I had. I’ve had it all my life, even when I was a child.”  
“Wow, really?”  
“Yeah. I remember one day when I was very, very young, and I was just starting to learn my way around the village. Back then I didn’t realize that I was seeing other villager’s dreams. I remember waking up one night, because I thought there was someone at the door. So I got up and checked the door. It was a very old NPC, an old lady. I had never seen her before. I asked her what her name was, obviously showing the curiosity of my young age, and she just sort of…freaked. She ran off,” Plower sighed. He took a moment to study his hands before continuing, “But I wanted to know what she was doing here, so I snuck out of my house and followed her. She ran up the well and turned around, still frightened. I asked her who she was, and I remember her exact words: ‘I am not really here, young man. I am just a figment of someone’s imagination, an old memory reminisced. I am just the ghost of a past life.’  
“I didn’t really know what she was trying to tell me, but then she asked me how I could see her. ‘I don’t know’, I probably said. I was confused, because I thought it was just a villager from a nearby village that strayed over here. So she explained to me that she was only the subject of a dream; apparently one of the other villagers was dreaming about their deceased mother or grandmother or something. Of course, I had no idea that I was one of the only villagers who could see other villagers’ dreams.   
“Being excited and all, I tried to tell all of my friends about my new talent, but they all thought I was crazy.” Plower laughed nervously here and clasped his hands across his chest, like how DiamondBlade was used to seeing villagers. “I lost them pretty quick. You could say that I learned my lesson. So I grew up without being able to share my secret. I saw new dreams, each one strange and exciting. Sometimes it would be ancestors of the dreamer, or an animal that a villager thinks about. Occasionally, if I was awake, I would be transported to other places. I saw so much…and yet, I couldn’t tell a single person about it.”  
“Wait,” DiamondBlade interrupted. “So you can visit other villager’s dreams, basically?”  
Plower nodded. “Something like that. But remember; I can also see dreams when I am awake. I was very much awake when I saw you in your dream.”  
“Okay. Keep going.”  
“Thank you. Anyway, soon the secret grew to be too much. I just couldn’t stay quiet. I had to tell at least one person…so I did.”  
“Who did you tell?” gasped DiamondBlade.  
Plower blushed, “I told my girlfriend, another farmer named Wheat.”  
“Plower and Wheat?” DiamondBlade teased. “Interesting.”  
Plower chuckled, his face red. He punched DiamondBlade lightly and kept going on with his story. “At first, Wheat seemed to think I was crazy just like everyone else. But I didn’t want to lose her, as well. So I did my best to convince her…and after just two more nights, she gave in. I thought I had won her over too easily. So I asked her what changed her mind, and she told me that she, too, could see other villagers’ dreams.”  
“Wow,” DiamondBlade smiled. “Now you two share something even more than love. That’s pretty impressive. Can I meet your girlfriend tonight?”  
Plower laughed, “Oh, you can’t see my girlfriend, but you can see my wife. Guess what; her name’s Wheat!”  
DiamondBlade laughed along with the NPC. “You know what I mean. Congratulations.”  
Plower nodded and said, “Thank you. Now, like I was saying. So Wheat and I realized that we both could see the dreams of others. But we also wanted to know why we could. So we risked a meeting with the Head — who is the leader of this village, by the way, even though I think you could have found that out from Iron — and Reader, our librarian, who is very wise for an NPC the age of him. Us four, and you, are the only ones who knew about our dream abilities.”  
In a hushed voice, DiamondBlade asked, “So do you know what why you and Wheat can walk in dreams?”  
Plower nodded. “Yes, we do,” he replied. “But…I’m not sure if I should tell you about it now. It’ll take me a little while to explain, and right now isn’t the best time. Right now, I want to hear how much you know.”  
“What? Know about what?” questioned DiamondBlade.  
Plower stopped and looked at him seriously. “Wow,” he murmured. “You really don’t know, do you?”  
DiamondBlade felt a fresh wave of anger mixed with overwhelming desperation. “Plower!” he nearly shouted. “Please! No, I don’t know! I don’t know about anything! I don’t know how I got here, I don’t know how I’m supposed to get back, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do here, and I especially don’t know about this ‘Ender Kingdom’ thing! Please, Plower, I’m so confused. I just want those answers! No more riddles, I’m begging you.”  
Plower’s eyes shone with sympathy, and he his voice was full of pity as he responded quietly, “I’m sorry, DiamondBlade. I guess I shouldn’t have expected you to know about anything, then. Let’s just finish this tour and get to my house. You just need some rest.”  
DiamondBlade felt like he was close to tears, despite Plower’s apology. He was just so exhausted and confused and lonely. “Okay, Plower,” he whispered hoarsely. “Let’s keep going.”  
DiamondBlade followed Plower in silence, and the only time Plower spoke was when he told DiamondBlade what each building was. Plower showed DiamondBlade the library, the farms, a few huts, the large stone building in the middle of the village, and a quick look inside Iron’s shop. The blacksmith had actually been fast asleep, snoring on his bed. Plower had given DiamondBlade an embarrassed look and breathed, “We should go.”  
Plower led DiamondBlade to his own home on the outskirts of the large village. Of course there were many buildings that Plower hadn’t taken DiamondBlade to, but the user was simply too tired to keep going. Plower looked at DiamondBlade, who was dragging his feet as he walked, and opened the door. “Come on in,” Plower invited.  
DiamondBlade ran up the stairs into the house and saw a female farmer villager with wheat-colored hair sitting on the bed, reading a book. She glanced up and gasped at the sight of DiamondBlade. She quickly put down the book, stood up, and clasped her arms over her chest like the villagers that users normally saw. Plower shook his head and soothed her, “Don’t worry, Wheat. This is DiamondBlade28. He’s the…you know.”  
Wheat inhaled and asked, “You mean…the Warrior?”  
DiamondBlade groaned as Plower cast a nervous look towards him. “I don’t think we should talk about that right now. DiamondBlade is tired, and he’s staying with us, tonight. That okay?”  Wheat nodded sympathetically and patted the bed. “I think our new friend can take the bed. He looks terrible!”  
DiamondBlade was too tired to protest. “Thank you,” he whispered as he fell down on the soft, comfortable bed. He pulled the covers up and asked the villagers, “Will you be alright?”  
“Yes, DiamondBlade. We’ll be fine,” replied Plower. “Go to sleep.”  
Without any other hesitations, DiamondBlade closed his eyes and immediately fell into a deep sleep.


	6. History and War

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't get bored on this chapter -- I know it seems irrelevant, but it does matter.

The morning activity and sounds outside woke DiamondBlade. He sighed contentedly and sat up, rubbing his eyes. Sunlight flooded the small house through the windows and door, and DiamondBlade found that he was alone. Where’s Plower and Wheat? DiamondBlade sighed. Oh well…I’m starving. Where’s food, now? DiamondBlade sighed. Then he gasped, “Dawn!” Where did they put my horse? Is she okay?  
DiamondBlade automatically jumped up and ran outside. Villagers were walking around, chatting with friends and farming. DiamondBlade turned to look at the side of the Plower’s house and nearly had a heart attack. Leaning against the side was an NPC — a farmer, by the looks of it. “Oh,” DiamondBlade said. “What are you doing here?”  
The farmer turned and stared at DiamondBlade with dark green eyes. “Waiting for you,” the farmer said simply.  
DiamondBlade repeated, “Oh.” Then, more intelligently, he asked, “So then, who are you?”  
The villager straightened up and extended a hand. “Name’s Farmer,” the NPC answered. Then he laughed, “We’re real creative with the names here, as you can see.”  
DiamondBlade chuckled and shook Farmer’s hand. “You’re Plower’s friend, aren’t you?” DiamondBlade remembered Plower saying something about a Farmer.  
Farmer raised an eyebrow and answered him with a question. “He tell you about me?”  
“Well…yes.”  
“Yeah, I’m Plower’s friend. We go way back. He told me to wait for you and bring you to Reader’s place. Oh, and…er, here’s something to eat. I thought you might be hungry.” Farmer revealed a piece of cooked chicken in his other hand and gave it to DiamondBlade.  
Hungrily DiamondBlade took the chicken and ate it, feeling his health level go up again. “Thank you,” DiamondBlade said. “I needed that.”  
Farmer nodded, “You’re welcome. Now, follow me. Reader should be up by now. And he has much to tell you.”  
Farmer and DiamondBlade walked down the cobblestone path into the center of the village. DiamondBlade glanced at the well and remembered Dawn again. “My horse,” DiamondBlade commented quietly.  
Farmer looked at DiamondBlade quizzically. “What?”  
“You know, my horse. Dawn. Plower sent — actually, er, never mind,” DiamondBlade quickly said, not wanting to have to explain how Plower had sent Dawn to him in a dream. “I tied her to the well last night, and…well, I just wanted to know what you guys did with her. Where is she?”  
Farmer nodded, understanding. “Ah. That one. She’s a beauty. You know, I’m always wondering how she got out of the village and made her way to you…”  
DiamondBlade chuckled nervously and mumbled, “I wouldn’t know.”  
“But anyway, don’t worry, DiamondBlade. She’s in the stable with the other horses. You can get her when you need her, okay?”  
“Alright. Thanks.”  
Farmer didn’t reply. He turned to the right side of the village and took DiamondBlade to the library. DiamondBlade peered into the window and saw Plower standing in the middle with his back to him. It looked like he was talking to someone, but DiamondBlade couldn’t see the NPC in front of him. Farmer walked up the stairs and opened the door, interrupting Plower’s conversation with the NPC in front of him. “Plower!” Farmer called. “He’s here.”  
DiamondBlade pushed past Farmer and smiled at Plower. Plower beamed and asked DiamondBlade, “Did you sleep well?”  
“I did,” replied DiamondBlade. He glanced behind Plower and saw the villager he was talking to. It was an old NPC, his hair almost white. His bright hazel eyes, though, were lively and confident. Laugh lines crinkled around his eyes, and his unibrow lifted at the sight of DiamondBlade. His robe was pure white, signifying his role as a librarian. “Ah. You have come, Warrior,” the old NPC rasped.  
That comment alone carried a tsunami of worry onto DiamondBlade’s back. “Plower,” DiamondBlade said nervously, “who is this?”  
Plower put a hand on the old NPC’s shoulder and looked at DiamondBlade. “This is Reader. He’s the oldest and wisest NPC in the village. He’ll be able to answer all of your questions.”  
Reader glanced at Plower and corrected him, “Most of his questions, Plower. I wasn’t blessed with infinite intelligence, you know.”  
Plower dipped his head. “Sorry. So, DiamondBlade, tell Reader what you want to know.”  
DiamondBlade gazed in the knowing eyes of Reader. “I think,” DiamondBlade began, “that Reader knows what I want already.”  
Reader chuckled. “You know me well, DiamondBlade28. Yes, it is true that I understand your concern about not knowing about the Ender Kingdom and your role in protecting it.”  
Two thoughts ran through DiamondBlade’s head after Reader finished his statement. One: How does he know what my name was? Did Plower tell him, or did Reader just…know? Two: I have to protect an entire kingdom? DiamondBlade actually said the second one out loud. “Whoa, wait…I’ve got to protect the Ender Kingdom? But I’m only fourteen! How am I supposed to help?”  
Plower and Reader both sighed simultaneously, which made DiamondBlade feel extremely bad. DiamondBlade looked down and whispered, “Sorry.”  
Plower smiled sadly and extended a hand to DiamondBlade, but DiamondBlade ignored it and pushed it away. Plower sighed again and shook his head. “Don’t be, DiamondBlade. I know it’s a lot. But just listen to Reader for now, alright? You can figure out what you think of your new responsibilities afterwards.”  
It was all that he could do to hold himself back from shouting out “RESPONSIBILITIES?!” at the two NPCs’ faces. But DiamondBlade swallowed his words and managed to choke out, “Then talk, please,” before clenching his fists and exhaling.  
Reader looked straight into DiamondBlade’s eyes, and DiamondBlade was suddenly afraid that the old NPC could see his nervousness and fear. Reader smiled and sat down on the floor. “Plower, DiamondBlade, come and sit down with me. Oh, and Farmer, you can leave,” Reader called to the NPC still standing by the door.  
DiamondBlade tried not to laugh as Farmer frowned and replied, “Yeah, well, I’ll just get on with that.” Farmer whirled around and stomped out of the door.  
Plower chuckled and looked at Reader, amused. “I don’t think that was the nicest way you could have put it, Reader.”  
Reader rolled his eyes and huffed, “You young villagers take everything too seriously. Lighten up, why don’t you?”  
Plower leaned over to DiamondBlade and muttered in his ear, “We’re not the ones who are stiff and cranky.”  
DiamondBlade stifled a laugh and looked back at Reader. Reader narrowed his eyes and cleared his throat. If he had heard what Plower said, he didn’t say anything. “If you two are done, then we can get on with this.” After getting satisfied that DiamondBlade and Plower were finished talking, Reader coughed and began to talk. “The Ender Kingdom, first of all, is the kingdom to the east of this village. It’s not our closest neighbor, by any means, but it is closer to our village than many others. There are only six villages closer to the Ender Kingdom than ours, so yes, the Ender Kingdom is still very far from us. Just not as far as, say, some of the coastal villages.”  
DiamondBlade quickly got the point: the Ender Kingdom was relatively far from the village.  
“Now,” Reader continued, “I would gladly give a very detailed history on the Ender Kingdom, but I can see that you, DiamondBlade, probably wouldn’t much like the length of time it would take to explain it.”  
Glad you could figure that out, DiamondBlade thought, nodding to Reader.  
“So instead I’ll give you a more basic history on the Kingdom. There might be a few answers to your questions in its history, DiamondBlade, so bear with me,” Reader added, seeing DiamondBlade’s annoyed face. He took a breath and began.  
“The Ender Kingdom was once just a handful of NPCs that gathered from nearby villages. Those villages had been raged and destroyed by armies of Overworld mobs. The years that the battles took place for the villages were called the Age of Ashes, because all that the mobs would leave were the ashes and ruins of the village to remind those who would find them of the power the Overworld mobs held. Those villages that the mobs targeted were all large and rich, with great amounts of treasure. The mobs attacked those villages most likely because they feared that the NPCs who lived there would rise up and try to wipe all of them out. Obviously that was never anyone’s intention, but the monsters did not know that because they never stayed around long enough to find that out.  
“Anyway, the NPCs decided that somehow they would have to get back at the Overworld mobs. So they built a small village and mainly focused on weaponry and battle. Thankfully they weren’t so dumb that they actually went into battle with the mobs with such small numbers, but they did defeat the mobs that wandered around too close around the village. Now, the new village was faced with a very hard decision. You see, if they attempted to make their numbers grow to defeat the mobs, the mobs would be alerted of the village and automatically think that they would become a battle village and try to kill all of the mobs. Then the monsters would stop the growth of the village all too soon. But if they stayed small and insignificant, they wouldn’t be able to help anyone.”  
“So what did they do?” DiamondBlade ask, not caring if Reader was about to answer that question. He just wanted to hear his own voice again.  
Reader eyed DiamondBlade, a hint of annoyance in his eyes, but his voice was calm as he replied, “Well, actually, they decided to do both.”  
“Both?” interrupted DiamondBlade again. “So you’re saying they stayed under radar while at the same grew in numbers?”  
Reader shrugged and agreed, “Yes, just not at the same time. That would be odd. What really happened was that they grew, but in small amounts. A new generation would be born, and then the village would train that generation. Maybe five to ten years later another generation would come to exist, and the village would train that generation. That’s how the village grew in size and strength throughout the years while staying unsuspected by mobs. Of course, I’m not saying the mobs didn’t realize that a village had suddenly increased its side within thirty years, but it wasn’t as noticeable. And the monsters that did have enough courage to attack the growing village were quickly destroyed.  
“Soon the village — by now a full-grown civilization — got so big that they decided they needed to expand their territory. So they sent out scouts, and for about a year the scouts went out and made sure the land around them was good for farming and for a city to stand. The scouts returned and reported to the Head of the village — a fine NPC named Guardian, I believe. According to them, the land was ready for them. At the time, this new soon-to-be-kingdom on the top of a large hill, almost a mountain. So when the scouts said that they could expand, Guardian said that they would go down the mountain. So slowly the reaches of the young kingdom grew down the bottom of the mountain and reached the river on the east base of it. They stopped expanding at the river and instead focused on west, and the kingdom spread out even more.  
“This entire growth of the area of the kingdom took about twenty years. Sadly Guardian died without choosing the next ruler, and for a little while the kingdom wasn’t sure what to do. They couldn’t be a strong battle force with a leader — and yes, the mobs were easily starting to notice that there was a kingdom right under their noses. The number of raids grew, and the kingdom looked to a new type of leader — a king. Eagerly the kingdom began to organize a monarchy…” — DiamondBlade was slightly shocked to hear that Minecraft NPCs actually thought this intelligently — “…and chose their first official king, King Goldenspear.” Reader chuckled. “All the names seemed to be war-based at this point. There was no ‘Plower’ or ‘Farmer’ or ‘Reader’. It was ‘Ironsword’ or ‘Wieldingfire’ or…you get the point.”  
DiamondBlade leaned forward and propped his head up on his hands. “So what happened after they elected their king? Did they lead raids on the mobs for revenge, or what?”  
“Yes, after getting used to having a king for a while. They wanted to see if they could trust Goldenspear to rule fairly. If he could rule with a pure conscience. After all, Goldenspear had all of the power to turn the young kingdom into an area of dictatorship. But the king led well, and the mob attacks that used to be a huge problem became just minor skirmishes. Of course, when Goldenspear died, his son Longbow was faced with the difficult task of filling his father’s shoes.  
“Within a year into Longbow’s reign, the kingdom — which was still unnamed — found that the battle number of each month was getting smaller and smaller. The mobs seemed to have simply stopped fighting the kingdom, and the many NPCs who lived there started to get uneasy. They were no longer villager NPCs; no, they couldn’t be called that after all these years of fighting and combat training. Now they were warrior NPCs, and they were used to either training or going off to battle monsters each day. Usually, if mobs stopped attacking a village, the NPCs who lived in the village would think that they were safe and would let their guards down. But these warriors weren’t like that. They were trained to think that if an enemy that has been pestering their kingdom just abruptly stops, they would come back stronger within a few weeks. They were trained to expect the unexpected. So once the mobs stopped attacking, Longbow ordered the defenses to be strengthened and to fortify the kingdom. But the huge amounts of mobs they expected never came.   
“For months, Longbow wondered what happened. Monsters would not simply give up and leave. They would keep relentlessly attacking until all of them were dead. Eventually a year passed without any attacks, and that was when all of the NPCs believed that the monsters had truly given up. But Longbow never stopped waiting for the mobs to come. At first all of the NPCs thought their king was crazy, but then something odd began to happen. Blocks were starting to mysteriously disappear, and the missing blocks formed a thick ring around the border of the kingdom. Longbow didn’t know what was going on, and he had no idea how the blocks disappeared. He ordered NPCs to fill the blocks back in, but for every one block put back, ten more disappeared.”  
Reader stopped his story again and looked at DiamondBlade, who was deep in thought. “Well?” Reader demanded of DiamondBlade.  
DiamondBlade straightened up and blinked. “Oh, uh,” DiamondBlade stuttered, “what did you ask me?”  
Reader rolled his eyes. “I didn’t ask you anything, but I thought maybe you’d know how the blocks disappeared.”  
“Ahh. Sorry. Well…maybe it could be another NPC army…”  
“But can you explain how quickly the blocks were removed? Remember, the actual measure of how many blocks were taken was ‘for every one block put back, ten more disappeared’.”  
DiamondBlade muttered under his breath and shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know! Some powerful mob or something…”  
Reader nodded, approving, “Yes, you’re getting there. Keep going. What type of mob, besides NPCs, can pick up blocks?”  
DiamondBlade looked at Plower with helplessness glimmering in his eyes. But Plower bit his lip and dipped his head, as if saying, Your turn, buddy. How much do ya know?  
DiamondBlade narrowed his eyes and glanced at Reader. “I think…” DiamondBlade began. “I should know it…” An idea of what the possible monster was formed in his mind. How could it not; DiamondBlade was, after all, an experienced player. And he had seen many a time where this particular monster was lumbering around, hefting a block. In fact, he had already encountered some in the game. “It was a bunch of endermen, wasn’t it?” DiamondBlade answered Reader.  
Reader grinned, “Good. Yes, it was the endermen who were removing the blocks, but it was an enormous amount of them that did. There was at least five hundred endermen working together to dig around the kingdom, and that was only a fraction of endermen in the world. Longbow realized that and began to panic, thinking that the endermen would try to raid the kingdom. That was the attack he had been waiting for. So he doubled the sentries watching the borders of the kingdom and strengthened the walls. He had warriors train harder than ever before. But he didn’t tell them of what was happening; no one had figured out that it was endermen who were attacking, and therefore they were not in fear. And Longbow knew that if the NPCs stayed calm, they would stay in their right minds. But that meant they had no idea what was going on.  
“Days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months. The ring around the kingdom got wider and deeper, and the NPCs couldn’t keep up with filling in the holes. They had to make a bridge to get across the shallow ravine that was starting to form, and by then it was too deep to fill in. Warriors came to King Longbow to complain about their problems; because of the ravine, trade didn’t come in as quickly. NPCs were no longer allowed out of the kingdom. The walls could fall into the ravine at any time — the endermen had dug straight up to the wall. A year later, the ravine reached down all the way to the bedrock.”  
DiamondBlade drew in a sharp breath. “That is deep,” he remarked. “What did the endermen use the ravine for, though? Was it just to intimidate the kingdom?”  
Reader didn’t answer for a minute, and DiamondBlade started to think that the old NPC wouldn’t talk for a while. Then Reader suddenly started to talk, startling DiamondBlade. “No, actually. Sure, it intimidated Longbow pretty well, but that wasn’t the only use for it. I’ll get to that in a bit. Just let me keep telling you what happened.”  
“Okay.”  
“Thank you. So. Once the ravine reached that depth, the NPCs started to panic, no matter what Longbow tried to tell them. Finally Longbow decided it was time to tell the kingdom about the endermen. So he called everyone together and told everyone that it was endermen who were digging the ravine, and that he believed that they would be attacked sometime soon. But he underestimated the faith and courage of his NPCs; instead of collapsing in fear, they stood for their king and kingdom and took matters into their own hands. Of course they were scared, but they didn’t show it. They kept training like they were supposed to, if not harder. Longbow was amazed at the loyalty of all of the warriors, so he — irrelevant fact — chose one of them, Broadsword, as his successor. Longbow died six months afterward due to an assassination and never actually lived to see the attack. No one knows who killed Longbow, and some NPCs are trying to still find that out, like me.  
“Now it was up to the new king, King Broadsword, to get ready to the inevitable battle. But a week after Longbow’s mysterious death, the endermen launched the first part of the attack. NPCs woke up to the smell of smoke and heat. A glow came from the ravine, and everyone rushed down to see what it was. Broadsword looked into the ravine, and when he saw what was, he knew that the war had started. The endermen had found a way to transport lava into the ravine using buckets, and the ravine was filled with the boiling magma from the first block down. The kingdom was now surrounded by a ring of lava, making it almost impossible to leave. The bridge that the NPCs were barely able to build over the chasm was the only exit or entrance for the kingdom, and there was lava bubbling right at the edge. The only solution that the NPCs used was to not even leave the kingdom at all. Only a few NPCs were sent out to bring in trade sent from nearby villages, and no animals or young children were allowed out of the kingdom. Water was poured into the ravine of lava in an attempt to turn the lava into cobblestone or obsidian, but the endermen would just as quickly dig it right back out.  
“Broadsword believed this was the plan of the endermen — to weaken the kingdom by making entry and exit near impossible. How would you like to be going in and out of a mighty kingdom on probably a five block wide dirt bridge?” Reader chuckled. “Also, I’m not sure if the endermen placed lava underneath the bridge; no one really wanted to find out.”  
Plower snorted, “Like it really mattered.” DiamondBlade glanced at the farmer and saw that he looked mildly amused. I wonder if he’s already heard this story…he makes it seem like he already has, but I dunno…  
Reader interrupted his thoughts as the NPC kept going on with his long story. “The real war started a few days after. But it wasn’t of endermen; no, these were regular Overworld mobs. Except…they were somehow stronger. It wasn’t as easy to defeat them, even with only one way into the kingdom. Every week a couple hundred monsters would invade the kingdom, and the NPCs would force them out. Broadsword himself didn’t really fight; he was too busy trying to fortify the walls. He trusted his generals to organize the defense system, and he was wise to do that. He did not have a successor, and the kingdom would be in big trouble if their king was killed.  
“The attacks got stronger, and NPCs started to call these weeks and months ‘the War of the Overworld’. Broadsword sent out messengers to nearby villages to get reinforcements, but because they were the only warrior civilization for a few thousand miles, they didn’t get much. Fortunately, the villages around the kingdom allied with it and sent in about seven-hundred NPCs all together. It wasn’t much, but the kingdom needed all of the help it could get. As the fighting wore on, Broadsword wanted to find out where all of the monsters were coming from and where the endermen were — the tall black creatures were still no where to be found. He sent out a hundred spies, called the Ender Scouts for obvious reasons, to sneak past the enemy lines and find the endermen. The next king — although he didn’t know it at the time — who was named Strongshaft, was the leader of the Ender Scouts. He was able to lead his tiny army behind the enemy and found the mobs’ base, a huge fortress made of obsidian. Strongshaft brought twenty Ender Scouts with him and infiltrated the mob fortress. There were endermen everywhere, but somehow, Strongshaft and the others were able to get past them. They invaded the very heart of the fortress…and there, they found the most horrifying thing. They found a working End Portal that could actually send creatures not only into the End, but also back out the exact same portal.”  
DiamondBlade’s eyes widened. He never knew that an End Portal could do that. Sure, you could return from the End, but you would appear elsewhere. “An End Portal? Was the fortress once a stronghold?”  
Reader shrugged. “No one really knows, but that was where about half of the endermen came from. The other half were from the overworld. Strongshaft was miraculously able to lead him and the twenty scouts back out of the endermen fortress — well, actually, only seven…they were ambushed by endermen, and thirteen were killed. Strongshaft was barely able to lead the other seven back to the rest of the Ender Scouts, and another thirty-eight of the remaining sixty-six were killed in the flee back to the kingdom. In the end, only twenty-eight were able to reach the kingdom, Strongshaft included.  
“When Broadsword heard about End Portal, he was struck with fear. He didn’t know if there were still fresh endermen waiting to reinforce the army if the kingdom started to win. He didn’t know if the End Portal was being used for supplies — there could have been another portal in the End that led to another Minecraft world, and there could be endermen passing supplies back and forth from each world. But Broadsword’s biggest worry was what he knew for sure was in the End — the biggest monster of all. You know what it is, DiamondBlade, yes?” asked Reader.  
DiamondBlade’s throat felt dry. “Yeah…yeah, I do,” he replied. He’d fought it enough times to know what it was. If it was in the End of this particular world at that time while there was a working End Portal, that would mean certain death. “It’s strong. It’s evil. But could it really fit through an Ender Portal? I mean, it’s huge!”  
Reader pursed his lips. “That’s still yet to be seen. In the War of the Overworld, it never actually left the End, thankfully. But more endermen did. Broadsword was able to toughen up the kingdom and defeat many of the regular mobs, but then the endermen came in. The attacks started to include endermen, which made it tricky to fight, because endermen were deadly and could teleport. It took a very long time to kill just one of them. King Broadsword suggested that everyone should get in groups of five to ten so that if an enderman should appear in front of them unexpectedly, they would be able to watch each other’s back and finish off the enderman relatively quickly. Thankfully, his tactic worked, and gave the kingdom a little more success. The endermen and the mobs kept on attacking the kingdom relentlessly every few days, giving them scarce time to recover and gain supplies. It was a hard time for the kingdom. They no longer called this the ‘War of the Overworld’. Now it was ‘the Dark Years’. Yes, the days did mount into years, and fights with endermen almost became routine. It was a bad time for the NPCs, and young children were resigned to their homes. They were not to leave, and two warrior NPCs was to be in each occupied house to defend the children from any endermen that may appear in there.  
“The Dark Years was what gave the kingdom its name. Because of all of the endermen who were raging against them, King Broadsword was the first to call it the Ender Kingdom. Everyone accepted their kingdom’s new name grimly, because they knew that the future residents of the kingdom — if there still was a kingdom after the war, they were probably thinking — would always remember the hardships the warriors faced. After naming the Ender Kingdom, Broadsword retired and handed the throne and crown to Strongshaft, believing that a younger leader would lead the kingdom wiser and better. Strongshaft became king in a rare, short time of peace. The endermen and the Overworld mobs stopped attacking the kingdom for a month or so. I’ll get to the reason why in a little bit.  
“Now, the new king had seen the deaths of many Ender Scouts, and he did not want a repeat of that. He didn’t want to see a killing like that again. So Strongshaft wanted to attempt to end the war himself. He wanted to find the leader of the monsters and destroy it in hopes that the monsters wouldn’t know what to do by themselves and scatter. What he did was kind of what Broadsword sent the Ender Scouts out to do, but instead of only trying to find out what the monsters were doing, he wanted them to take down the mob army from the very heart of it.”  
Reader stopped talking after Plower wheezed and interrupted his story. “Sorry, Reader,” Plower coughed, “but some of the dust from these books are getting into my lungs.”  
Or you’re just getting plain bored, DiamondBlade thought. He, on the other hand, found himself interested in the history of the Ender Kingdom, which he thought was going to be boring. DiamondBlade had never been very eager to go to history class at school — he usually spent the period folding his notes into paper airplanes and shooting spitballs at his teacher, Mr. Smith.  
Reader hadn’t resumed his story yet, and DiamondBlade took the pause to ask Plower, “Have you already heard this story, Plower?”  
Plower glanced at DiamondBlade and lowered his head. “No. Just some of it,” Plower replied. “In this village, children learn about the Ender Kingdom’s history because of its significance. Other villages far from here don’t teach their little villagers about it because the Ender Kingdom is far away from it, and it didn’t matter if they knew about it or not. In truth, this village, among the others around the Ender Kingdom, are the only civilizations who have any clue about it. And I think that makes Reader sad.”  
Reader nodded. “Yes. The Ender Kingdom has such a devastating and war-filled history and still manages to stay important and…well, almost monumental. And yet we are the only village with another fifty, maybe, who know and care about it.” He coughed and said, “I’ve almost reached present-day Ender Kingdom. King Strongshaft decided that he could spare a few hundred NPCs for his battle plan, which he called the Ender Invasion. Almost everything these guys called started with ‘Ender’. Since the Ender Kingdom now had thousands of NPCs in the army, Strongshaft decided to send in three battle forces. The main one would come straight in to attack the mobs from the middle while the other two made a wide birth around them and attack the fortress from the sides. The two smaller forces would each have one hundred Ender Scouts — still named for the honor of Strongshaft’s old job — that would meet each other in the fortress and become a two hundred NPC invasion force.  
“Strongshaft sent out the Ender Invasion, and surprisingly, it worked pretty well. The first group of NPCs went in and tore through the enemies, fighting harder than they ever had before so that most of the mobs would have to focus on fighting them, not defending the fortress. While the monsters were occupied, the other two NPC groups ran behind the fight and separated into groups. One hundred NPCs from each group got ready to go into the fortress — which was being guarded by endermen, unfortunately, but luckily they didn’t suspect anything, so they weren’t as alert — while the remaining NPCs ran in from behind the monsters to sandwich them inside two Ender Kingdom forces and destroy them. The fight outside of the fortress was won for the NPCs, yes…but the fortress invasion did not go as smoothly.” Reader sighed and explained, “Apparently the endermen were expecting something similar to the plot of the original Ender Scouts, and they had rigged the fortresses so heavily that you couldn’t go ten blocks without seeing redstone and tripwires. The two hundred NPCs who went into the ender fortress found that out much too late. And remember what I said about the mobs not attacking the Ender Kingdom for a while? It was because they were busy rigging the fortress and making it harder to invade. Luck just ran out for the fortress invaders.  
“They figured that was why the endermen were not on high alert; they knew that even if the NPCs managed to evade them, they were going to be trapped in the rigged fortress and would meet their own doom there. In short, only thirty out of the two hundred invaders reached the heart of the fortress alive,” Reader whispered solemnly.  
DiamondBlade shared a sad look with Plower, and the farmer looked downcast as well. I never knew I would feel so…just so much for those NPCs. It’s like I really care. And I do, DiamondBlade thought. “How did the others die?” DiamondBlade asked hoarsely, not caring how childish he must have sounded.  
Plower gave him a silly look as Reader scratched his head and replied, “You know, just traps. Some of them found themselves plummeting towards lava while others were impaled with arrows. The most unlucky suddenly realized that they had fallen into a room crowded with zombies and skeletons with a monster spawner in the back. Things just happened so quickly. But the survivors did find the leader of these mobs. That was the important thing.”  
DiamondBlade gasped, “Who was it?”  
“Well, it was an enderman, of course. But this enderman was like none other. He — yes, he — was larger than all of the other ones, and instead of purple teleportation particles, his were dark red and violet. Instead of the normal purple eyes, the enderman king had blazing white — like Herobrine himself.”  
DiamondBlade shivered. All those legends about the terrifying Herobrine — about him being Notch’s dead brother’s ghost in Minecraft, about him killing you on the spot, about his white eyes — were known by every user who played Minecraft. Most likely every NPC, as well. The YouTube videos and pictures on Herobrine were fakes, though, and the pictures that DiamondBlade thought might be real featured a tiny Herobrine way in the background. “Do you think Herobrine could have become an enderman and was leading the mobs?” DiamondBlade asked Reader.  
Reader whistled softly and shrugged. “You know, no one has actually thought of that.” Reader cursed under his breath. “And I hope with all my heart that that is not true. The enderman’s name was Dark Nightmare — Overlord Dark Nightmare. He refused to call himself a king; Dark Nightmare thought that calling yourself a king sounded like you would be hiding behind a kingdom of warriors to defend you instead of going out and fighting yourself. So he appointed himself as the Overlord of the Enderman and Master of the Overworld. Overlord of the Overworld would have sounded strange.”  
Plower snorted while DiamondBlade laughed quietly. The thought of an enderman trying to introduce Dark Nightmare and getting its tongue twisted attempting to say ‘Overlord of the Overworld’ lifted his spirits. “That’s true.”  
Reader grinned at the user. “Yes. But anyway, the remaining NPCs faced Dark Nightmare with the grim knowledge that there was no way the could face the strongest enderman in all of Minecraft and survived. And it was true…except one of them did. That one brave warrior was able to sneak out of the fortress as Overlord Dark Nightmare destroyed the courageous NPCs swiftly. The one warrior, though, he was able to get the news about Dark Nightmare back to Strongshaft before literally dying of exhaustion, wounds, and broken sanity on the spot.  
“Strongshaft and his head advisor, Stonebrick, had both heard rumors about the enderman Dark Nightmare. And the rumors horrified them. Dark Nightmare was said to be a ruthless killer who would destroy anyone who stood in his way. And with a monster army at his disposal, he was virtually unstoppable. As soon as the NPCs who were fighting the monster mobs finished off the last zombie, Strongshaft told them all that they did not destroy all of Dark Nightmare’s army. The king of the Ender Kingdom knew there were thousands more, if not millions. Dark Nightmare could bend the very will and spirit of a monster, and there was a chance that Dark Nightmare might have gathered almost all of the monsters within a hundred worlds.”  
Reader coughed again and looked out the window in the library. The sun was at its peak and was starting to set; DiamondBlade was shocked to see that Reader’s story had taken half of the day. Then again, time was different in Minecraft. Days in the game were only minutes. A week in the real world could mean possibly maybe two months or even three in Minecraft. Reader glanced back down at Plower and DiamondBlade and said, “I should probably hurry up. So now that Strongshaft and Stonebrick were facing some of their worse fears, they summoned a reader — not a librarian, like me, Reader, but a reader as in an NPC who delivered prophecies and omens. The reader’s name was Dustedlight. I suppose Strongshaft wanted Dustedlight to tell them some good news. But alas, Dustedlight told them that the endermen would attack them for decades to come; now the Ender Kingdom and the endermen were mortal enemies. Strongshaft was shocked into near death, but Dustedlight gave him a Prophecy — the Prophecy of the End, in which case, you, DiamondBlade, are in.”  
DiamondBlade blanked out. “Oh, yeah,” he said meekly. “My favorite Prophecy. Ahh…yes. Can you, um, tell me exactly what my favorite Prophecy says?”  
Plower and Reader gave the user a look of sympathy. “I understand this is overwhelming, DiamondBlade,” Reader murmured, “I really do. This is what the Prophecy of the End says:   
A hundred years of destruction, a hundred years of death.   
Warriors will fight until their final breath.   
The kingdom crumbles to its knees;   
courage and bravery will swiftly flee.   
Life will end while the storm rages on;   
yet the sun will still come at dawn.   
Two centuries will give way to the Prophesied One —   
the Warrior will arrive, the Warrior will come.   
He will save the kingdom, destroy the mobs;   
else all life will be robbed.   
At twilight the moon rises, the sun sets,   
but the sunrise means the enderman’s death.”  
Reader closed his eyes as he finished the Prophecy of the End. His eyes shimmered as he stared straight at DiamondBlade28, who had turned as white as a ghost. “That’s you, DiamondBlade,” Reader whispered. “Now you see what has been said by Dustedlight. He was foretelling the coming of you two hundred years before you came. Dustedlight also explained, after giving the Prophecy of the End, that the Warrior would be like none other — an NPC that didn’t belong. You are a user, but you are also an NPC. You are one of a kind. You are part of the Minecraft code, and yet…you don’t belong here.  
“No one is quite sure where Dustedlight received the Prophecy from. Some NPCs say Notch, the Creator of Minecraft. Others think it was a neutral enderman with psychic powers. Some even say it could have been an enchanted sword.” Reader snorted. “Just the idea of a sword spouting prophecies while someone is using it to chop a zombie’s head off…amusing.”  
DiamondBlade suspected that Reader was only trying to make him feel better. It didn’t work. “Ah…right, Reader, but…this whole Prophecy thing. Am I supposed to go to the Ender Kingdom?”  
Reader nodded slowly. “I believe so. The endermen kept attacking the Ender Kingdom, and soon the kings of the Ender Kingdom could predict when the next attack would happen. The attacks came either twice or three times each month, depending on how strong the endermen army was. The other regular Overworld monsters were driven from the army; their punishment from the Overlord for being defeated by the Ender Kingdom warriors. That was less monsters for the Ender Kingdom, but, ah…that meant more endermen. So it really wasn’t that big of a help. New kings came and went — Strongshaft died and leadership went to his son, Sandblock. Sandblock retired after three decades and passed the crown to his nephew, Oakwood. Oakwood, sadly, was killed after only two months of service, and the Ender Kingdom was kingless for a while until everyone agreed on a new king, a courageous NPC named Ironwing. Many more came after Ironwing that I won’t take the time to name. Each king faced different troubles in the Ender Kingdom, but other than the constant endermen attacks, nothing changed. Everyone just waited for the Warrior to come, and that was all they hoped for.  
“Fifty years ago, the attacks got worse. The endermen took more lives, and Overlord Dark Nightmare himself — who is at least a thousand years old, now — occasionally led the attacks. Everyone is waiting for you, DiamondBlade. You are their last hope.” Reader winced as he heard his own words to the NPC that did not belong. “DiamondBlade, I’m sorry, I just — ”  
DiamondBlade held up a blocky hand. “No,” he sighed, “it’s okay. I get it, alright? I’m supposed to be some savior of a kingdom that is constantly being attacked by endermen.” DiamondBlade remembered his dream, and how Sharpsword the NPC warrior had said ‘can’t survive another attack’. The Prophecy that Coalfire had talked about was definitely the Prophecy of the End. “That’s what I have to do, I suppose. Save an entire kingdom singlehandedly.” DiamondBlade’s voice was cold and bitter as he growled the words.  
Plower bit his lip and put a hand on DiamondBlade’s shoulder, trying to soothe him. “DiamondBlade, please, listen — ”  
DiamondBlade angrily shrugged Plower’s hand off and spat, “I’m only fourteen. Minecraft’s always been a game to me, nothing real, okay? I’ve never fought a zombie in real life before! I’ve never killed a skeleton! Heck, riding Dawn was the first time I’ve ever ridden a horse! It’s a wonder she didn’t kill me!” He lowered his voice and felt a lump form in his throat. It was a lump of defeat, and he hadn’t even started fighting. “I can’t do it,” DiamondBlade whispered. “It’s not that I won’t, but…I don’t even have the strength to try.”


	7. To Go...or Not to Go

DiamondBlade closed his eyes and turned away from the NPCs in front of him. He was ashamed of himself for being so scared. He didn’t want to look at Plower and Reader — they were probably too disappointed in him to care, though.  
A violent shiver shook his body, and DiamondBlade let out a small sigh. A gentle hand touched his back. It was probably Plower. But as DiamondBlade slowly turned, he saw the kind face of Reader. “Oh, DiamondBlade,” the old NPC said sadly, “I can see how hard this could be for you. Listen, we should go see the Head now, alright? He should be somewhere in the village; the Head of each village don’t usually leave the village. Is that okay with you?”  
DiamondBlade didn’t answer at first. He turned his head to look straight at Plower. The farmer was gazing back at him, his mouth turned downwards in a frown. As for whether Plower was angry with him or simply felt sad, DiamondBlade didn’t know. DiamondBlade’s throat felt dry as he told Reader, “Yeah…yeah, okay. I want to meet the Head, anyway.”  
Reader smiled and pulled DiamondBlade up. “Plower,” Reader called, “are you going to come with us? It’d be better if you did.”  
Plower’s eyes glittered with something that DiamondBlade didn’t understand — it could have been anger, sadness, disappointment, or maybe even a mix. “Sorry. I was planning on taking a stroll today. You can go on without me.” Plower’s voice was hard as he stood up. He looked at DiamondBlade, and DiamondBlade could have sworn he saw a flash of subtle anger flare in Plower’s eyes. But it was gone too fast for DiamondBlade to determine if he did. “I’ll catch up with you later, DiamondBlade,” the farmer told him, his voice still unreadable and guarded. Then he pushed past Reader and DiamondBlade and disappeared outside.  
Have I let my friend down? DiamondBlade wondered sadly. I never meant to… “What’s wrong with Plower? Is he angry with me?” DiamondBlade asked Reader.  
Reader shrugged and answered, “I don’t know. Maybe he is. Maybe he is not. I can usually tell the feelings of other NPCs, but Plower’s always been hard to read. It’s like he doesn’t really know who he is. But I can tell you that no matter how Plower feels about you right now, he won’t break his friendship with you just because of his disappointment. You’ve argued with your friends, haven’t you?”  
DiamondBlade thought about his school life. He had many friends, and he had in fact gotten into arguments with them. He had once fought with his best friend, Danny, to the point where they almost stopped being friends. But luckily he had made up with Danny, and the two were still best friends. But DiamondBlade had actually lost a friend due to an argument — a boy named Luke. It was a sad day for him, but Luke had never really been much of a friend to him, anyway. It wasn’t as big of a loss as it could have been.  
“Yeah,” DiamondBlade agreed. “But Plower’s different. This whole thing is different.”  
Reader nodded. “It must be so strange to be down here in Minecraft when you’re used to living up there in the physical world, DiamondBlade.” The NPC’s voice was gentle and knowing. “What is it like?”  
Reader’s question surprised DiamondBlade. “Oh…in my world?” DiamondBlade repeated. Reader nodded. “Well, in some ways, it’s like Minecraft,” DiamondBlade explained. “I mean, people — sorta like the NPCs in Minecraft — build lots and lots of buildings like the ones here. In fact, some of the buildings users built in Minecraft are copies of famous structures in my world. I live in a village, too, called a neighborhood. Tons of neighborhoods make up something like a gigantic village — a city, almost like the Ender Kingdom. We have butchers and blacksmiths and librarians, too, along with all of the other jobs the NPCs have. They’re just a little bit different. And we, too, have horses and cats. After all, Notch did create this with the real world in mind.”  
Reader sighed. “It sounds wonderful, actually. Sometimes I wish that I could see what it’s like in the User World, as we call it, but I know that I belong here, in Minecraft.”  
“We all have our own place,” DiamondBlade whispered to himself.  
“What was that?”  
“Ah…um, nothing, Reader,” DiamondBlade said. “Nothing at all.”  
Reader gave him a strange look and led him through the large village. NPCs nodded to the NPC that did not belong and Reader as they passed by. DiamondBlade felt uncomfortable, now that he truly knew about the role that he must play. He was thankful that he wasn’t doing something that would decide the fate of the entire world of Minecraft, but with his luck, it would probably turn out to be. Focus on what’s happening now, DiamondBlade, DiamondBlade told himself fiercely, because if you think too far ahead, you’ll lose track of what’s going on right now. That wouldn’t be good for anyone.  
Reader led him to a house in the middle of the village that stood higher than the rest. Instead of just wooden planks and stone that made it up, there were golden blocks on each corner of the house. “This is the Head’s house,” Reader explained. “Usually it’s the oldest NPC in each village, but in this village’s case, it’s the most experienced. Come in; he’s been waiting for you all day.”  
DiamondBlade snorted, “But you’ve been holding us up, Reader.”  
Reader chuckled and tightened his lips in a smile. “That’s true.” Reader pushed the door open, and DiamondBlade found himself at the bottom of a two story house. Winding stairs led up to the second floor. “He’s waiting for you on the second floor. Go on up; this conversation is just for you and the Head.”  
DiamondBlade smiled and nodded to Reader. Gathering his wits, he walked up the stairs and emerged on the second floor. An NPC was sitting at a table with his back to DiamondBlade, but user could easily tell that he had heard him. “Welcome to our village, DiamondBlade28,” the Head suddenly remarked to DiamondBlade without turning around. “Farmer has informed me of your arrival. You are the Warrior, aren’t you?”  
DiamondBlade gulped. “Yes…yes, I’m the Warrior, I guess. The ‘savior of the Ender Kingdom’.”  
The Head turned slightly, and DiamondBlade could see a fraction of the NPC’s face. “DiamondBlade,” the Head rebuked gently, “the way you say it, it sounds like you think that’s a bad thing. Why is that?”  
DiamondBlade clenched his fists and walked a few steps closer to the Head. He felt that he shouldn’t give this NPC a fake response; he felt that he should confess his fears to him. “Sir…” DiamondBlade started.  
Then the Head turned all the way around, and DiamondBlade saw a wispy brown beard fall down the NPC’s face. The Head’s dark hair fell down to his shoulders, and his caramel-colored eyes shimmered with kindness. His robe was white, like Reader’s, but two narrow purple lines fell vertically down the middle of the robe. His sleeves were red around the edges. There was no doubt that this was the leader of the village. “There’s no need for titles amongst friends, DiamondBlade,” the Head smiled. “Call me by my old blacksmith name, Forge. That’s what I used to be before I was elected as the new Head.”  
DiamondBlade smiled. Already he felt a warm connection to this NPC, Forge. He walked around and sat down in front of Forge. “Okay, then…Forge. You want to know why I think that’s a bad thing…well, I don’t, really,” DiamondBlade tried to explain. “I’m fine with helping other NPCs. I’m nice like that. But if I was still sitting at my desk playing Minecraft from the…er, the User World…I would be more comfortable with that. Death wouldn’t be so real to me, and neither would pain. The responsibility wouldn’t be as great. But now that I’m really a…an NPC, almost, I feel differently. Things are different. This is so much more real to me.”  
Forge sighed. “Responsibility,” he started, “is a very real thing, and it could be also very hard. I know this; I am the Head of this village. I am faced with responsibility each day. I am tasked with keeping my villagers safe. I need to watch over them, make sure we have food each day, and keep everyone safe from the mobs that attack us. Yes, we can fight,” Forge added, seeing the surprised face on DiamondBlade. “We just don’t do it in the sight of a user; that would be the start of trouble. And anyway, the user usually fights the mobs for us, and if he or she does not, we are still capable of running away. But we can hold weapons and face down enemies like any other user. I don’t think the Creator, Notch, programmed us this way. We were originally supposed to be simple villagers that only served the purpose of trading with users and harvesting food. But mobs still attack us. We have evolved to the point where instead of hiding away in our homes and hope that the zombies don’t break down our door, we face danger head on and fight for our lives.” Forge paused, and then went on. “Anyway, going back to the issue of responsibility. I lead my villagers out for battle, and I always come back with a few less. I’ve seen many deaths, and I’ve organized more funerals than I’ve wanted to. And everytime a villager falls on the battlefield, I always feel like I’ve let down one more life. I feel like I’ve let everyone down.”  
DiamondBlade blurted, “But that’s not true! You’re doing what you can!”  
Forge sighed, “I know that, DiamondBlade. But that’s one of a leader’s biggest fears: that one day you’ll let your team down, and everyone will pay for it.”  
DiamondBlade thought about his own life. That was just how he felt whenever he went out on the field for one of his soccer games. He was always afraid that he would mess up and that his team would pay for it. That was just how Forge felt, probably, except on a much bigger scale. In Forge’s case, it could be a life-and-death situation. For DiamondBlade, it was only a lose-or-win situation.   
“We have a lot in common, DiamondBlade,” Forge commented, breaking DiamondBlade’s train of thought. “I can see it in your eyes. You, too, face the hardships of responsibility. You’re afraid of what would happen if you messed up, yes?”  
DiamondBlade reddened as he realized that Forge had guessed his true feelings. “Ah…yeah. I guess so,” DiamondBlade admitted. “I’ve always felt like there’s just so much on my shoulders, and I don’t want to fall under the weight. I don’t want to fail.”  
Forge tilted his head. “Fail? In what, DiamondBlade?”  
DiamondBlade tried to explain soccer. “Um, well, there’s this thing that I play in User World. It’s a sport…you just kinda kick a ball around and try to kick the ball into a net behind another player. It’s fun, and it’s a team effort.”  
Forge nodded. “Everyone holds their own weight and contributes differently to the team, is that right?”  
“That was scary.”  “What?”  “You said exactly what I was thinking…”  
Forge chuckled, “I’m an NPC of wonders, DiamondBlade.” Forge then leaned forward and propped his head up on his hands. “But anyway. I must tell you what you need to do as the Warrior. And just listen and hear me out, okay? I understand your concerns, but don’t interrupt unless it’s a very good question.”  
DiamondBlade nodded. “Sure.”  
“First of all,” Forge began, cutting straight to the point, “you must travel to the Ender Kingdom very soon. Their king — King Knockback — will want to hear of your coming. You must depart this village in two days at the latest.” Forge glanced outside and then back at DiamondBlade. “For the sake of the kingdom, I would send you this evening, but I understand how dangerous that is. So I will not.”  
DiamondBlade let out a relieved sigh. He didn’t want to be riding to a faraway kingdom in the middle of the night on a horse. Even if that horse was Dawn. “Thank you,” he smiled.  
Forge shrugged. “But you still must go soon, DiamondBlade. I already have some farmers making you some food for the trip, and Iron’s hard at work making you some armor and weapons. Your horse is being fed and groomed for the trip. And I believe someone is interested in going with you.”  
DiamondBlade perked up. “Oh? Who is it?” he asked.  
In response, Forge spread his arms out to the side of him and gestured to the stairway behind him. DiamondBlade leaned to the side to look behind Forge, and footsteps signaled the arrival of an NPC. A familiar farmer ran up the stairs and stood at the foot of the stairways, smiling, “I’m going with you, DiamondBlade.”  
Forge turned around as DiamondBlade stood up and gasped, “Plower? You’re coming with me?”  
Plower crossed his arms. His unibrow pressed together defiantly. “I may not be the Warrior, but I’m still an NPC, and I can go to the Ender Kingdom if I want to or not. King Knockback will understand; he’d be stupid if he only let the Warrior in.” Plower’s voice was bold and confident with no trace of the earlier bitterness.  
“I thought you were off on a walk,” said DiamondBlade dumbly. He still didn’t understand why Plower was coming with him. He thought that Plower was angry with him.  
Plower’s eyes flashed. “Oh, come on. I was just packing. We’re leaving tomorrow.” Plower sounded confused as he asked, “You…you do want me to come with you, right? I mean, I don’t have to if you don’t want me to — ”  
DiamondBlade quickly held up his hands. “No, no, I do want you to come with me, Plower. It’s just that I thought…never mind,” he sighed.  
Plower laughed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but whatever it is, we’re friends and I’m sticking with you, no matter what.”  
DiamondBlade glanced sheepishly down at Forge, who looked up at him and gave him a smile. You were right, Forge, thought DiamondBlade. “Thanks, Plower,” DiamondBlade smiled.  
Forge and DiamondBlade both stood up with Plower. “So it sure sounds like you’re going, DiamondBlade,” Forge remarked.  
DiamondBlade sighed. “I don’t know…of course I know I’ll end up having to go, but just tell me what else I need to do as the Warrior. I want to know how I’m supposed to help.”  
Plower gave DiamondBlade a crooked smile as Forge gave him an approving look. “Very good, DiamondBlade. You want to understand your responsibilities,” beamed the NPC.  
Actually, I just want to know how hard this will be, because I really don’t want to do this, DiamondBlade protested in his head. But by all means, if you think I’m brave, go ahead!  
“Well,” Forge started, “somehow you’re going to…ah, how do I say this…I think you’re going to have to lead the kingdom in their fight in some way. After all, you’re the one who is supposed to save them.”   
DiamondBlade felt the blood drain from his face. “Yay…I’ve always wanted to be the leader of an army. General DiamondBlade…that’s me…” DiamondBlade muttered, his dry voice dripping with sarcasm.  
Forge pretended not to hear, but what he said next didn’t help DiamondBlade’s fear settle at all. “In addition, I have a feeling that you will be the one to face Overlord Dark Nightmare in the final battle — the Battle of the End, it will be called — and ultimately someone will be killed. It will either be the Master of the Overworld’s death, which will free the Ender Kingdom from the devastating monster attacks, or…it will be you, DiamondBlade, the Warrior, which will destroy the last hope for the kingdom. If you are killed, the Ender Kingdom will be obliterated.”  
DiamondBlade’s blood chilled. “That’s not very pressuring,” he whispered. “So basically, I fight some enderman with powers no other enderman has. Then I have to kill him. A fourteen-year-old killing the Overlord of Enderman. I can see that happening.”  
Forge and Plower tossed their heads back and laughed, and DiamondBlade guessed that they were assuming that he was just being modest and that the Ender Kingdom didn’t have a thing to worry about. News flash, DiamondBlade thought sadly, I can’t do that…  
“I know it’s a lot. But I believe in you. We believe in you,” added Forge. “And you’re not alone. You’re not in this by yourself, remember? You have the Ender Kingdom behind you.”  
“And you have me,” Plower reminded him.  
DiamondBlade walked up to the farmer and agreed, “You’re right, my friend. You’ll be by my side the entire time.”  
Plower lifted a hand from his brown sleeves and put an arm around the user. “This will be fun.”  
Forge glanced at DiamondBlade and asked him, “So it’s final, then? You will go to the Ender Kingdom?”  
DiamondBlade swallowed. He was quiet for a long time, but thankfully, Forge and Plower waited patiently. I know that I must…but they’re asking to see if I can be brave enough to acknowledge it. Bravery’s never been one of my strengths up in the User World — I mean, back home — but maybe it can be one here, in Minecraft. Responsibility…I’m the Warrior. That’s what I’ll be now. I can’t be the scared person I’ve always been. I have to take a step farther. DiamondBlade knew what his answer was. “Yes,” he said finally, “I’m going to go the Ender Kingdom. And I’ll be the Warrior that they want me to be — the Ender Kingdom’s last hope.”  
Forge beamed and threw his hands up as Plower grinned and wrapped DiamondBlade in a hug. “I’m glad,” Plower laughed in DiamondBlade’s ear. “I didn’t want to be traveling with a grumpy user.”  
DiamondBlade snorted and broke the hug first. “Hey, I’m a nice guy!” he chuckled.  
Forge’s eyes were lit up with amusement, and he opened his mouth to say something when a strange sound was heard outside. It sounded like someone was beating something big and metal. Forge and Plower immediately paled, and DiamondBlade questioned, “What was that?”  
Forge gasped, “That’s the…it’s…”  
Just then, someone threw open the door downstairs and bolted up the stairs. DiamondBlade saw that it was Iron, his face tight with pain. His body was flashing red — there was an arrow in his back. “Iron!” shouted DiamondBlade. “What — ”  
Iron wheezed and rasped, “Skeletons…zombies…attack…help us…” before he fell to the floor. He wasn’t dead and his HP had stopped going down, but the blacksmith was injured. DiamondBlade guessed that Iron’s HP was probably extremely low. DiamondBlade looked at Forge. The Head’s unibrow was narrowed in anger, and he growled, “How did they know you were here?”  
DiamondBlade stared at Forge. “What?”  
Forge looked at DiamondBlade, his eyes worried. “The monsters can sense that you’re here. There’s no other explanation. They’ve attacked us before, but from the looks of it, not this violently. That’s why they’re attacking — because they’ve been ordered to kill you many years ago.”


	8. Violent Departures

“Oh, great,” DiamondBlade groaned. “The monsters know I’m in Minecraft…now I’ll have a bunch of monsters trying to kill me.”  
“I’m afraid not, but on the bright side, the endermen don’t know that,” agreed Forge grimly. “Plower, DiamondBlade, go down to the blacksmith shop. Iron, do you have their weapons and armor ready for the trip?”  
Iron looked up and nodded weakly. “They’re ready,” he whispered.  
DiamondBlade stepped forward. “Wait, why do we need — ”  
Forge snarled, “There’s been a change of plans. You and Plower must leave tonight if you are going to survive.”  
“We’re going to the Ender Kingdom tonight?!”  
Forge nodded. “I’m sorry for not giving you more time to prepare. You can stay and help us fight, but you can’t stay much longer. You and Plower are to leave tonight, do you understand?”  DiamondBlade bit his lip and nodded. “You’re going to take care of Iron, right?”  
“He’ll be alright. He won’t die, if that’s what you’re wondering.”  
“Alright. Bye, Iron,” DiamondBlade murmured to the injured blacksmith. Iron looked up at DiamondBlade, and for a quick second his dull eyes brightened with happiness. “I’m happy I lived to see the Warrior myself,” he whispered before falling limp and lapsing into unconsciousness.  
DiamondBlade then turned to look gently at Forge. “Are you going to come out with us?”  
Forge nodded. “Yes. I’ll come with you as far as the blacksmith’s, and then I’m going to go and fight.” Forge peered out the windows, as did DiamondBlade. His stomach lurched as he saw villagers wielding swords against zombies, blocking arrows from skeletons, and quickly destroying creepers before the mottled green creatures could explode and destroy their homes. “We’re winning,” he informed them, “but only because we outnumber them. I can only hope that not many will die tonight.”  
DiamondBlade realized that the sun had gone down without him noticing. “I hope Farmer is okay,” he told Plower.  
Plower nodded. “Me too.”  
The Head of the village urged, “Come on! Hurry up!” Forge ran past DiamondBlade and Plower and dashed down the stairs. DiamondBlade and Plower shared a quick glance and followed the white-robed NPC. Forge threw open the door, and almost immediately a zombie fell upon them. Forge and Plower gasped and fell back, leaving DiamondBlade to face the monster. Thanks a lot, guys, DiamondBlade angrily thought. He gave a battle cry and drove his fist into the stomach of the zombie, knocking it backwards and causing it to lose some of its HP. My inventory is empty! DiamondBlade realized, surprised and mildly alarmed. It’s okay; Iron has armor and weapons for us anyway.  
The zombie pushed itself off of the floor and moaned angrily. It ran at DiamondBlade again, but the user was ready. He shoved Plower and Forge out of the way of the zombie, veering to the side and dodging the rotten creature. DiamondBlade swung himself to behind the zombie and kicked it into the front wall of Forge’s house as hard as he could. The zombie hit the stone and flashed red again. It’s gotta be almost dead. One more hit… DiamondBlade yelled and smashed his fist into the back of the zombie’s head, killing it immediately with a sickening crunch.  
The zombie fell to the floor and disappeared, leaving behind XP orbs and rotten flesh. DiamondBlade scooped up both items and turned to look at Plower and Forge, who were looking at him in awe. “What?” he demanded.  
Forge blinked and shook his head. “Sorry. You just seemed so…”  
“…brave,” Plower finished for Forge.  
DiamondBlade shrugged. “I just did what I’ve always done. After all, I am the Warrior, right?” He allowed himself a dry smile.  
Plower laughed, “That’s right!”  
DiamondBlade and the villagers kept running through the battling village. DiamondBlade saw many villagers fighting with monsters, and his heart skipped in with sadness as he saw a farmer fall and disappear with an arrow lodged in his heart. He heard Forge mutter behind him, “That was Shovel. He was a good farmer…we’ll miss him dearly.”  
Plower mumbled something in addition to Forge’s comment, but DiamondBlade didn’t understand it. The trio swerved through houses, slashing at any attacking monster that they saw. Suddenly DiamondBlade felt pain explode in the back of his neck. He yelled and fell to the floor, losing HP. Plower gasped, “DiamondBlade, what’s — oh.”  
DiamondBlade growled, “What is it?”  
Forge angrily glanced behind him. “You gotta get up. There’s a skeleton behind us. It just shot you. Come on; before it kills us! Remember, we only have our fists for weapons. Nothing else.”  
DiamondBlade held his breath as he reached around him and grasped the shaft of the arrow piercing his neck. He closed his eyes and yanked it out, crying out in pain as it was wrenched out of his skin. “Ow,” he breathed, his neck throbbing where the wound was. “I was hoping I’d never have to pull an arrow out of me, but…there’s a first time for everything, right?”  
Forge laughed. “That’s the Warrior the Ender Kingdom needs!” He was about to say something else, but another arrow whizzed by, narrowly missing Forge’s head. Oh yeah. The skeleton, DiamondBlade thought foolishly. He twisted around and batted a third arrow away from Plower, shaking his hand to clear the pain. “Guys, get to the blacksmith’s! I can take care of the skeleton.”  
Plower swallowed and nodded. “Are you sure — ”  
“Just get my armor and weapons! I’m not a pro boxer, you know!”  
“Okay! We’re going!” Plower pushed Forge ahead and called back to DiamondBlade, “We’ll be right back!”  
“I hope so,” muttered DiamondBlade under his breath. “Because I’ve got a skeleton to kill.” He turned around and faced the bleached white monster, who clacked and drew back another arrow. DiamondBlade rolled underneath the pointed projectile and reached inside his inventory desperately. There’s gotta be something! he thought urgently.  
As if his inventory was listening to him, his hand closed on a rough stone handle. DiamondBlade blinked and drew out a stone sword. “Oh. Wasn’t that nice?” he muttered.  
Hefting the heavy blade in his hand, DiamondBlade rushed the skeleton. The skeleton clicked its teeth together and shot arrow after arrow at the user. DiamondBlade raised his sword and was able to block most — but not all — of the arrows. The ones that escaped his sword pierced his side and legs, causing DiamondBlade to stumble and lose HP. Pain surged through the user, but he didn’t stop running. Finally he reached the skeleton and wrenched the bow out of its hands before it could use it to hit him again. DiamondBlade knocked the skeleton out of the ground, pulled one of its own arrows out of his leg — which numbed him — and drove it into the skeleton’s neck, not wanting to use his sword to kill it. The skeleton clacked weakly and disappeared, leaving behind four arrows and XP.  
DiamondBlade sighed and gathered the supplies. He had also stolen the bow. “A bow and four arrows, not to mention all of the ones making me look like a porcupine,” DiamondBlade said to himself. “I can use that.”  
He quickly pulled all of the arrows out of him, cringing with each of them, and stored them away in his inventory. Trying to recall where the blacksmith was, DiamondBlade ran in the direction he saw Plower and Forge run. He caught up to the two NPCs quickly; they were locked in a fist combat with a large zombie. “DiamondBlade!” gasped Plower. “So glad you could join us!”  
DiamondBlade grunted in response and swung at the zombie’s head. The zombie’s dark green body turned red as the stone sword struck it. Forge lunged forward and punched its face while exclaiming, “Where did you get the sword?”  
DiamondBlade kicked the zombie away from the trio and replied, “Found it in my inventory. It might be one of the swords I made when I got here.”  
Plower laughed and drove his fist into the zombie’s chest, causing it to moan and stumble backwards. “Well, thank goodness you found it!”  
DiamondBlade nodded and swung his sword one last time, slamming into the zombie and killing it. He didn’t bother picking up the rotten flesh, but he did grab the orbs of XP. “Let’s go.” He ran ahead and spotted the blacksmith building through a haze of smoke — there were various fires burning around the village. No doubt the monsters had started them. I just hope everyone is okay — and that the chest hasn’t burned down…  
DiamondBlade skidded to a stop and peered into the blacksmith’s. The chest was still standing there, but a fire was burning dangerously close to it. “We have to hurry!” insisted the user.  
He started to climb up the stairs, and Forge cautioned, “Hold on. There might be something in there — ”  
DiamondBlade ignored the Head’s warning and entered the small room. There’s nothing in here. What is he talking about? DiamondBlade ran to the back of the room and threw open the chest. The armor and weapons were still there, as well as some tools. “Hey, Plower! Come get your stuff!”  
The NPC entered the room with caution. Then he stiffened. “Something doesn’t feel right…DiamondBlade, get out of here. Now.”  
DiamondBlade rolled his eyes and grabbed his set of iron armor, two of the four iron swords, and half of the tools — picks, shovels, and axes. He stored them away in his inventory and laughed, “Oh, come on. It’s perfectly safe — ”  
Just then, something outside roared. DiamondBlade shouted and fell back from the chest as the wall in front of him cracked and blew apart. In front of him was a huge crater. No doubt a creeper had exploded there. In the middle of the crater stood a skeleton that stood taller than others, and to DiamondBlade’s horror, it gave him a gruesome smile. In a segmented and choppy voice, the skeleton growled, “I have found the one called ‘the Warrior’. The Overlord will be pleased.”  
The mention of the Overlord shook DiamondBlade out of his terror. “The Overlord?” he rasped. “You work for Dark Nightmare?”  
The skeleton did not answer. It only clacked its teeth together like the rest of the skeletons did and drew back a massive bow with an arrow longer than DiamondBlade would have liked. The skeleton hissed, “The Warrior will not have to worry anymore. The Overlord will be notified of your presence, and you will be quickly disposed of.”  
DiamondBlade challenged, “So you’re not gonna kill me yourself?”  
The skeleton admitted grudgingly, “That is something that I would appreciate doing by my hand, but the Overlord has requested that your death will be at his hands two hundred years ago.”  
“How does he know that I’m in Minecraft?”  
“The Overlord does not know that you are here in this place. That is why I will bring the joyful news that you are here in this place.”  
DiamondBlade narrowed his eyes and stood up. “Guess what — you’re not going to get the chance.”  
But before DiamondBlade could put away his pathetic stone sword and draw his new iron one, the skeleton clacked and raised its bow. “The Overlord has commanded that when the Warrior is found, the Warrior must be brought to the Overlord alive. The Overlord did not say that the Warrior was to be unharmed.”  
It took DiamondBlade one second too long to figure out what the skeleton was saying. But the moment he did, the skeleton let out a battle cry and let the monstrous arrow nocked in its bow fly towards DiamondBlade’s face. Time seemed to slow down, and DiamondBlade saw light glinting off the razor-sharp iron point. He seemed to have all the time in the world to watch the arrow spiral towards his face. I wonder if I’ll respawn when I die… But it sounded like the skeleton didn’t want to kill him; only injure him direly. Oh, well…sorry, Plower. I can’t be the Warrior you want me to be, DiamondBlade thought sadly.  
Then, as the arrow was about five inches away from DiamondBlade’s face, something metal glinted towards the corner of DiamondBlade’s eye. A sword came down right as the arrow was about to strike, and the projectile bounced harmlessly off the newcomer’s sword. Time sped up again, and DiamondBlade heard Plower yell, “The Overlord won’t know anything about DiamondBlade if we can help it!”  
DiamondBlade gasped and stumbled to the side as Forge and Plower vaulted through the broken wall towards the skeleton. Plower was clad in iron armor, and he was wielding an iron sword. Looks like we’re leaving now, then, DiamondBlade thought. As the two NPCs attacked the skeleton, DiamondBlade threw on his armor and grabbed his own sword. Then he jumped out of the ruined blacksmith building and joined his two friends. The skeleton didn’t stand a chance. Its bow didn’t do much good at close quarters, and the skeleton helplessly whacked at the three with it. It didn’t really do a thing. They hacked at the skeleton, and apparently Forge had found a spare sword lying around in the blacksmith’s. The Head of the village was also attacking the skeleton mercilessly, and DiamondBlade found himself in awe at the NPC’s raw talent. It was Forge who thrust his sword through the skeleton’s chest — at least, where its chest would be if it wasn’t just bones — and killed it.  
“Thank you,” DiamondBlade gasped breathlessly to Plower and Forge. “It would have killed me if you didn’t block the arrow.”  
Plower shook his head. “I don’t think it was trying to kill you. It did say it was going to take you to Dark Nightmare. It was just trying to violently knock you out.”  
DiamondBlade groaned. “I’ve already had an enderman crack my skull. I don’t want a skeleton cracking my neck.”  
Plower and Forge grinned, and DiamondBlade smiled back in despite of the situation they were in. But the moment of peace was interrupted quickly. A shrill scream tore through the air, and Plower’s expression turned to one of happiness to one of wild anger. “That was Wheat!” he cried out. “Something’s attacking her!”  
Not waiting for the others’ response, Plower ran off in the direction of his home. Forge glanced at DiamondBlade, and he dipped his head. The two shot off in pursuit of the horror-stricken farmer. Plower was tearing straight through enemies with an animal-like strength. A zombie tried to stop him once, but Plower simply picked up the creature and hurled it aside. An arrow came flying towards the NPC’s head thanks to a skeleton perched on a roof, but Plower snatched the arrow in midair with a speed that DiamondBlade never thought was possible. Plower stopped for a moment and threw the arrow straight back at the skeleton with deadly accuracy, striking it in the middle of its head and causing it to topple off the roof. Plower didn’t even give it a second glance.  
DiamondBlade stared at Plower, and then glanced at Forge. The Head looked back at him, eyes wide. “That just shows what love can do,” he remarked, his ripped white robe billowing in the soft wind.  
Plower, Forge, and DiamondBlade finally reached the house. Plower stopped and cried out — half of the house was on fire, and through the shattered windows DiamondBlade could see a huge zombie holding an NPC’s limp body. “NO!” screamed Plower. He dove through the windows and started pummeling the zombie with his fists and his sword. The zombie growled and flung Wheat out of the house. DiamondBlade gasped and dove to catch the villager. He was barely able to catch Wheat before she hit the ground, and he whispered, “Wheat…Wheat, are you okay?”  
Wheat moaned softly, her eyes closed. DiamondBlade noticed a large scorch mark on her chest. Her robe was burnt black where the burn was, and Wheat shivered in DiamondBlade’s arms. “D-DiamondBlade?” whispered Wheat, her eyes fluttering.  
DiamondBlade stroked the villager’s hair, and Wheat’s dark sienna eyes opened slightly. DiamondBlade smiled, “Don’t worry. You’re safe now,” and put Wheat down against the wall of a nearby house. Wheat groaned as she hoisted herself up into a sitting position. “Where’s Plower?” she asked.  
DiamondBlade pointed to the house. “Over there, killing that zombie.” As he spoke, he heard glass shatter, and DiamondBlade turned just in time to see a wounded zombie fly through the window and disappear, dead.   
“That’s Plower,” sighed Wheat affectionately.  
Forge and Plower then ran over to DiamondBlade, worried looks painted on their faces. “Wheat!” exclaimed Plower.  
As the two villagers embraced, DiamondBlade noticed that Plower’s armor was slightly cracked. I just hope it will be okay on the trip.  
Forge touched Plower’s shoulder lightly. “Hey,” he said quietly, “you and DiamondBlade need to go. We can’t risk any more monsters seeing DiamondBlade. Right now, they all assume he’s another NPC with armor on.”  Plower swallowed and hugged Wheat one more time, telling her, “I have to leave the village for a little while, Wheat. Sorry.”  
Wheat shook her head and smiled, “No, it’s okay. The Warrior needs your help. DiamondBlade, keep Plower safe, alright?”  
DiamondBlade laughed. “Okay.”  
Plower stood up and waved to Forge. “We’re on our own, now?”  
“Yes. I must leave you now. Go and get your horses. Leave the village — quickly.”  
DiamondBlade and Plower nodded and left the two NPCs crouched by the house. “So where are the stables?” DiamondBlade asked Plower.  
Plower scanned the burning village and brought in a gasp. “Not now. Farmer…I don’t know if he’s still…” breathed the villager, his voice filled with horror.  
“What…” DiamondBlade looked around, and then his eyes fell on an NPC who was so injured that DiamondBlade didn’t even recognize him at first. The farmer’s brown robe was tattered and burnt, and the NPC was lying in front of a rock. His dark green eyes were open, though, and he silently pleaded for help. Two zombies loomed over him, and a spider was crawling slowly up the rock behind Farmer. DiamondBlade cried, “Farmer!” as Plower broke into a sprint. Farmer yelped feebly as the zombie growled and raised a fist. But before the fist could fall down and possibly kill the NPC, DiamondBlade cleared the distance between him and Farmer in three strides and swiftly drove the point of his sword straight into one of the zombie’s back. The zombie froze as the tip pierced through its chest, its body instead flaring red. DiamondBlade grunted and lifted the sword out of the zombie’s back, and the zombie moaned once before falling to the ground and dying.  
DiamondBlade looked at the spider on the rock. It hissed at him, its multiple red eyes flashing. Then it sprang off of the rock with its two front legs outstretched towards DiamondBlade, the barbed and pointed ends gleaming in the firelight. DiamondBlade raised his sword too slowly — the spider grabbed his arm and scuttled over his shoulder and stabbed at his back. DiamondBlade fought the urge to shriek; he didn’t want to give the spider that satisfaction. Instead he ignored the burning pain and whirled around quickly, causing the spider to fly off. He ran over to the dazed creature and quickly finished it off. DiamondBlade took the XP and the spool of thread it dropped and ran back to Plower. The villager was finishing off the zombie with ease, and as DiamondBlade ran up, Plower thrust his sword through the zombie’s chest and it disappeared.  
“Nice work,” approved DiamondBlade, his breath heavy due to his loss of HP.  
Plower nodded to acknowledge that he had hear DiamondBlade and knelt down beside Farmer. “Hey,” murmured Plower softly, “are you alright? I mean, I know you’re not alright, but…”  
Farmer didn’t answer immediately, but he looked up at DiamondBlade and Plower gratefully. He didn’t have to say anything; the look in his eyes told them everything. DiamondBlade’s heart pounded. Now he could see just how hurt Farmer was; his face was covered in bruises, and his eyes were slightly dim. “Farmer, how long have they been attacking you?” he asked, passion lining his voice.  
Farmer coughed into his fists and cleared his throat. “They’ve been there for a long time,” he rasped, his voice rough and brisk. “They were playing with me — the zombies, I mean. The spider wasn’t there until you two came. But everytime I came close to dying, they would stop. I’m sure they would have killed me for real if you two hadn’t saved me. Thank you.”  
Plower narrowed his eyes. “Yeah, but we’re not leaving you. You’re going to be killed if we do.”  
Farmer’s eyes lit with the old energy DiamondBlade remembered. “I can take care of myself,” protested the NPC.  
DiamondBlade rolled his eyes and scooped the villager up in his arms, marveling at just how light he was. “Yeah, right,” he scoffed. “Especially in the state you’re in. Come on; we’ll put you somewhere safe. Somewhere where the monsters won’t get you.”  
Plower suggested, “There’s a small sand cave a little ways from my house. It’s in the ground, and no one will be able to find you there. You can wait until the battle is over. I’ll tell Forge where you are.”  
“That sounds alright,” Farmer admitted. “I’d rather not be killed by zombies and skeletons.”  
“I didn’t think so. DiamondBlade, wait for me. I’ll be right back,” said Plower. DiamondBlade nodded and lifted Farmer into Plower’s arms. “Actually,” DiamondBlade said, “I think I should go with you. If I was a monster and I saw a villager carrying another villager run by, I would take the chance to kill them. Don’t you think?”  
Plower rolled his eyes. “I see your point. But we have to hurry.”  
DiamondBlade and Plower ran back the way they came, this time with Farmer. Forge and Wheat had disappeared; DiamondBlade assumed that they were somewhere in the village fighting. I hope I can make you proud, Forge, DiamondBlade told the Head silently, and make things right.  
They ran behind Plower’s house, and Plower took them to a small sand dune about thirty blocks away. They came to the back of it, and there was a little two block hole at the bottom of the dune. It went in about five blocks, and it was very hard to see. The only way DiamondBlade could see how far back it went was because Plower dug out one block of sand in front of it. “Here, Farmer. Stay here for the rest of the fight. Here’s a block of sand…” — Plower tossed Farmer the sand block — “…so you can hide yourself again. I’ll send Reader back for you when it’s over.”  
“Reader!” gasped DiamondBlade. “Where’s he?”  
This time Farmer laughed hoarsely. “Oh, he may be old, but he can take care of himself. If I can tell you one thing not to do with Reader is to get into a sword fight with him. Don’t worry DiamondBlade, Reader is able to carry his own weight. Plower can tell you that.” With that, Farmer shuffled down to the hole weakly, dropped down, and placed the block in front of him. “Now go!” he called from the hole. “Go to the Ender Kingdom! The Warrior must save them!”

 

Plower and DiamondBlade reached the village center unopposed. The monsters were starting to be driven off by the NPCs, but there were still plenty lurking around. “Where’s the stable?” asked DiamondBlade.  
Plower pointed to the right side of the village. “Over there. I just hope the horses aren’t dead.”  
They started sprinting, and DiamondBlade took a quick detour to steal five carrots from a farm. He ate one and asked Plower another question: “We do have food, right?”  
Plower’s eyes widened. “Oh…right. Uh, I’m not sure…”  
DiamondBlade cursed under his breath and finished the rest of the carrots. “Well, that’s great. Let’s just hope they filled a chest or something, because if we have to leave without any food, we’ll be screwed.”  
“Ahh — I should have reminded Reader of that!”  
DiamondBlade shook his head and stepped in front of the stables. He gasped. There were fires burning all around it, and inside the horses were whinnying wildly and banging against the stall doors. “Plower! Stop the fires!” ordered DiamondBlade.  
Plower nodded and started frantically unearthing dirt and cobblestone blocks to cover the fires with. DiamondBlade rushed inside the stables, and his heart skipped a beat as he saw that the fires were quickly spreading from each wood block. Horses of all color — tan, dark brown, black, spotted white — were bucking and neighing in fear. DiamondBlade stored his sword in his inventory and bared his fists. He moved to the first horse and broke down the stable door. “Go!” he shouted at it.  
The horse snorted and pushed past him, running out into the burning village. I hope they don’t stray very far, hoped DiamondBlade. He moved on to each horse and broke down each door, freeing them from the stables. Finally he reached two horses in the very back — Dawn and another horse, a black stallion with white splotches around his eyes. “I’m assuming you’re Plower’s horse,” DiamondBlade told the stallion.  
The stallion neighed at his owner’s name and bobbed his head up and down. Plower ran in behind DiamondBlade and panted, “The fires are out around the stable, but it’s gonna burn up pretty quick still. We need to get out.” Plower glanced at the stallion and added, “Oh, and this is Midnight. Yeah, it’s my horse.”  
“Dawn and Midnight? Are we like going with times of the day and night or something? Who’s next, Twilight? Dusk?” joked DiamondBlade.  “Yeah, really,” snorted Plower. “And I have more good news. I found two chest near the entrance. It’s packed with food for us. We just have to get to it before any monsters do.”  
DiamondBlade smiled and broke the walls in front of both horses. Both he and Plower jumped on top of their horses, and Plower grinned, “This is going to be fun, my friend.”  
“Yeah,” DiamondBlade agreed, despite the pounding of his heart. “It sure is.”  
They both rode out of the stables, flung the chests of food on the back of horses — DiamondBlade grabbed a few carrots and chicken to put in his inventory — and emerged into the village. DiamondBlade’s eyes widened. Fire was quickly spreading, and now there were NPCs frantically pouring water and covering flames with blocks. DiamondBlade recognized Iron amongst them. “Iron!” DiamondBlade called.  
The blacksmith turned and nodded to the user, but he didn’t say anything. There was a smile on his face. DiamondBlade wasn’t sure why, but he kept riding on. Dawn was a bit skittish because of the flames, but she was swift enough for DiamondBlade’s liking. “We need to find Reader. I have no idea where the Ender Kingdom is!” confessed DiamondBlade.  
Plower nodded. “Me neither. I’ll check the library and the Head’s house. You check the well and the farms. We meet back here if we can’t find him.”  
“Got it.”  
The pair split up in different directions. DiamondBlade veered towards the middle of the village and glanced up the well. Something seemed different about it, somehow. Reader wasn’t there, but he had the urge to look at the well. DiamondBlade unmounted Dawn and cautiously walked up the cobblestone stairs, aware of the fighting going on around him. A zombie stopped fighting a villager — the butcher of the village, by the look of his white apron — and turned to follow DiamondBlade. It moaned once before Dawn neighed and struck out at the zombie with strong hooves, killing it. DiamondBlade laughed and muttered, “I do like a horse with ambition.”  
He reached the top of the cobblestone tower and realized that he couldn’t hear the gurgle of the well water. DiamondBlade gasped and ran to the edge and peered down the once-full well. It was now dry and empty. Maybe they used all of the water on the fire, assumed the user. There were no fires beside the well; the only flames that DiamondBlade saw were burning on the sides and roofs of the village houses and on the trees, and NPCs were tending to them quickly. I guess there’s only the farms to check now.  
DiamondBlade urged Dawn to go faster. It was a big village with many farms. DiamondBlade glanced over each farm they passed. No one was there — and neither was the crops. All there was was burnt dirt and no water. Even the harvest vegetables and fruits were gone. DiamondBlade swallowed. This wasn’t just an attack; this was also a raid. Well, DiamondBlade decided, looks like Reader isn’t out here. I just hope the old NPC is okay.  
DiamondBlade rode back to Plower, and his heart lifted when he saw that Reader was standing beside Midnight, an iron sword drawn. “DiamondBlade!” the old NPC rasped. “You and Plower must leave!”  
“I’m sorry,” DiamondBlade told Reader, “but we don’t know where to head towards.”  
Reader gestured with his free hand. “Come on. I’ll escort you out.”  
DiamondBlade was about to ask how an old NPC would keep pace with two horses when Reader suddenly dashed off at high speed. “He’s fast!” DiamondBlade exclaimed to Plower.  
Plower nodded. “Like I said, he’s in more shape than you could ever imagine. Let’s move!”  
Plower shot ahead on Midnight, and DiamondBlade quickly snapped the reins on Dawn. Dawn neighed and bolted forward, catching up with Reader and Plower. Reader was running faster than DiamondBlade thought anyone could run — though definitely not as fast as he ran in his dream. A group of zombies appeared in their way, and DiamondBlade yanked the reins back on Dawn to avoid them. Reader pulled out an iron sword that DiamondBlade had no idea Reader had and hacked through the zombies with ease. “Is Reader some retired sensei or something? Because there is no way…” DiamondBlade’s voice trailed off.  
Plower glanced at DiamondBlade and laughed. “Well…something like that. He’s lived a long life.”  
Reader glanced over his shoulder as the last of the zombies disappeared and ran off again. DiamondBlade and Plower galloped after him, their blades flashing at any enemies who sought to kill them. Twice DiamondBlade felt arrows find exposed skin underneath his armor, but for the most part the skeletons’ arrows only bounced of his armor. They were almost out the village, and DiamondBlade felt his heart start to pound. Reader stopped and pointed into the darkness that was slowly becoming dawn again. “Keep going in that direction!” Reader told them. Then he tossed DiamondBlade a compass, which he caught and stored in his inventory. Reader explained, “The Ender Kingdom is straight that way. Don’t go off course; you might miss it. Good — ”  
Before Reader could finish, a sinister laugh split the air. Everyone stopped what they were doing — even the monsters paused their fighting. “What was that?” gasped DiamondBlade. He almost thought it was an enderman — but this wasn’t the low, mysterious chuckle of the dark monsters. It was something else.   
Plower and Reader exchanged glances, and Reader’s eyes were particularly panicked. “I…I don’t think it could have been…” stammered Reader. “…I thought he was…banished…”  
Plower’s eyes widened. “Only to the End. But he must have found a way back to the Overworld.”  
DiamondBlade pleaded, “Tell me who it is. I need to know.”  
“An enemy that has been plaguing the world of Minecraft ever since it was created,” muttered Reader gravely. “That’s all I will say. It is terrible that he has found you.”  
Plower added, “And if he’s helping the endermen fight…oh, DiamondBlade…”  
DiamondBlade didn’t have a chance to ask them what they meant. In front of them, a huge horse as black as the darkest night sky materialized. There was someone on his back, clad in diamond armor. The strange thing was was that the diamond was black instead of the regular blue. The helmet covered all of the rider’s face, and there were only slits for the eyes that were so narrow that DiamondBlade couldn’t see into them. The fighting had resumed, and no one but DiamondBlade, Reader, and Plower had noticed the mysterious figure. Reader and Plower looked like they were frozen in place, and DiamondBlade had Dawn get a bit closer. “Who are you?” he demanded.  
The rider laughed again, and his horse bucked. The stallion’s dark red eyes bored into DiamondBlade. “You ask me who I am?” the rider asked in a raspy voice. “I am your worse nightmare. I am the master of darkness. I am the creator of evil. I am the dark side of Minecraft. And I know who you are, DiamondBlade28.”  
DiamondBlade gulped. “You know, I really hate how everyone all of a sudden knows my name.”  
The rider threw his head back and howled with laughter. “Oh, it is not very hard,” he sneered. “You are the well-known Warrior, the hero of the Ender Kingdom. Everyone knows your name — they just don’t know you are here.”  
DiamondBlade shivered. The very voice of the rider unnerved him. It seemed like it was an evil black worm crawling into his soul. “You…you won’t tell Dark Nightmare I’m here, right?” nervously asked the user. DiamondBlade knew that this rider might be working for the endermen, and he might end up telling the Overlord of Enderman that the Warrior was here, which would ruin the element of surprise.  
“Tell Dark Nightmare?” the rider repeated, his voice betraying a tiny ounce of surprise. “That old enderman that’s been living for years and years on end? I do not waste my time on monsters like that. He is beneath me, not worthy of my help. No, I do not assist the endermen in their struggle against the Ender Kingdom, but I do not work against them.” The rider’s voice switched to a soft but deadly murmur. “I can keep secrets better than you think, DiamondBlade28.”  
DiamondBlade unsheathed his sword and insisted, “That’s great, but you need to go. Now. Plower and I are leaving, and you’re in our way.”  
“In your way?” The rider’s horse snorted and took a step closer to DiamondBlade. The rider unsheathed his sword — which looked like it was made of obsidian — and chuckled, “Ahh. Yes. You are on your way to the Ender Kingdom, then.”  
“How would you know that?” demanded Plower. DiamondBlade had forgotten about the two NPCs, and now they were bristling with suspicion.  
The rider scoffed, “I know things, NPC. But that is not a discussion I wish to have right now.” The strange creature — who DiamondBlade believed was some sort of NPC — turned his head back to stare at him. DiamondBlade could imagine a smile forming on the dark NPC’s face. “I will leave, Warrior. I will not return to you for a long time — but let me tell you one thing. I am not pleased with your appearance in this land. You do not belong here. I am the rightful ruler of Minecraft, not Notch. And I don’t want you to threaten that. But I will not attack right now; I will let my monsters and the endermen deal with you. But if you should survive all of them…” The rider’s voice turned loud and furious as he swore, “One day, you will feel my anger at your very being. I promise you that.”  
With those words, the rider slashed the air between him and his horse with his sword, and they disappeared in a cloud of smoke. But as DiamondBlade and Plower got ready to go, the smoke started to spread. Even more zombies and skeletons emerged from the smoke and started to make their way towards the trio. DiamondBlade let out an unpleased cry as multiple arrows flew past their heads. “No! We can’t stay here any longer!” he exclaimed.  
Reader growled, “That’s right. Leave immediately, you two.”  
Plower said helplessly, “But they’re in our way!”  
“Then I will hold them off,” snarled Reader.   
DiamondBlade didn’t even have time to protest. Reader jumped ahead of them and was instantly lost in the mob of monsters. “Go!” shouted Reader in the middle of the mob, furiously slashing at everything with his sword. “Leave! Get to the Ender Kingdom! Your fate lies there!”  
“NO!” screamed DiamondBlade. If he left the old NPC there, he would surely die. Plower looked agitated and upset, too — if not more. “I’m not leaving you! You’re going to die!”  
Reader hollered back, “I don’t want to hear it, DiamondBlade! Do you want my last memory of you to be unpleasant? Be the Warrior! Make me proud! Now GO!”  
Plower urged, “Come on, DiamondBlade! I’m leaving, now — it’s our turn!” Plower cast one last sorrowful, anguished glance at Reader before spurring Midnight ahead, leaving DiamondBlade and Reader. There had been something else in Plower’s gaze, though, something more than the sorrow or regret that a friend would feel…  
Tears streamed down DiamondBlade’s face. He felt his hands make their way to Dawn’s reins. “I came to love you, Reader. I’m sorry,” he murmured. Then he snapped the reins, and Dawn started to gallop. DiamondBlade was able to get one last look at the old NPC, and when he looked at Reader’s face, he only saw love and hope, not regret and fear. Then Dawn cleared the village, and as DiamondBlade caught up to Plower and left Reader and the rest of the village he had grown to love behind, he whispered, “Good bye, my friend. I’ll be the Warrior, I promise.”  
Then they were gone.


	9. Fun with Spiders

The tears filling DiamondBlade’s eyes blurred his vision. He sniffed and wiped his eyes, trying to focus on the rolling plains in front of him. “I left him,” he muttered to himself. “I just left Reader there. How could I? He’s gone…dead…”  
“You’re being too hard on yourself,” snapped Plower beside him. DiamondBlade gave him an angry, rueful look, and Plower sighed. His voice grew softer as he said, “I’m sorry. I really am. I didn’t mean to sound angry. But Reader fought for us. We can’t let him down; you know that.”  
DiamondBlade stared ahead of him. “Yeah, I know. But now he’s probably dead. And don’t you say that he’s still alive,” warned DiamondBlade, seeing Plower open his mouth to protest, “because I know — and you know — that he’s not. He was brave, but there is absolutely no way an old NPC can hold off that many monsters with an iron sword.”  
“Well,” Plower reasoned, “the other villagers could have helped him…” DiamondBlade’s upset look shut him up. “Sorry,” Plower muttered, wiping a tear from his own eyes. “You don’t want false hopes. I forgot.”  
DiamondBlade nodded and looked back at the hills. The sky was getting lighter, and the sun was starting to show above the horizon. It was like the day was trying to wipe away the night and the battle that had taken place back at the village. And Reader’s death, added DiamondBlade bitterly.  
He pulled out two pieces of pumpkin pie and ate them, feeling his hunger fade away. The two rode in silence, exchanging very few words. DiamondBlade wondered what was keeping Plower quiet — was it him, or was it Plower’s sadness? I hope he’s not mad at me again. The last thing DiamondBlade wanted was his partner to be cross with him.  
They rode until the sun reached its peak, and the heat began to grow. It didn’t help that DiamondBlade was wearing iron armor. “Hey,” he panted, “I’m gonna take off my armor. I don’t think we need it right now.”  
Plower nodded. “Good idea.”  
They stopped their horses, and DiamondBlade took off the iron armor and stored it away in his inventory. He glanced up at the sun and dismounted Dawn, saying, “I don’t think it would hurt to take a break.”  
Plower glanced down at Midnight, who looked up at him and neighed. “Okay.”  
Plower got off of his horse and guided both of them to a tree. DiamondBlade sat down on a rock while Plower crafted a bucket and filled it with water from a small pond nearby. Plower took the water to the horses and dug a small trench in front of them, which he filled with the bucket water. Then he got four carrots and fed two to each horse. Satisfied that the horses were eating and drinking, Plower walked back to DiamondBlade and sat down with a long sigh.  
“What’s wrong with you?” asked DiamondBlade, half teasing.  
Plower didn’t look at DiamondBlade. “Why do you ask?” he murmured.  
“I don’t know, you just seem…sad. And I don’t think it’s because you had to leave Wheat. Did something happen? Are you mad at me again?”  
Plower looked at DiamondBlade sharply. “Again?” he repeated. “What do you mean, ‘again’?”  
DiamondBlade suddenly felt awkward. He fiddled with his armor and nervously replied, “Oh…well, when I said that I didn’t want to be the Warrior after Reader told us about the Ender Kingdom, I just thought you were angry at me.”  
Plower laughed, and DiamondBlade felt like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders. “So…I’m guessing you weren’t angry at me…” decided DiamondBlade.  
Plower gasped for breath. “Angry?” Plower chuckled. “I wasn’t angry. Well, I was angry, but I wasn’t angry at you. I was mad at Reader for making the job of being the Warrior sound so difficult. I was disappointed in you, sure, but I wasn’t angry.”  
“Oh,” DiamondBlade said. “Sorry about that. You just seemed so bitter.”  
Plower admitted, “Yeah, I was. I didn’t want to talk to either of you. But forget about that.” He brushed his long hair behind his shoulder and continued, “I want to hear what you think about being the Warrior. We’re friends, and I think that means you should be honest with me. It doesn’t have to be some emotional speech about your feelings. It can just be a friendly talk.”  
Plower beamed at DiamondBlade, urging him to talk. But DiamondBlade didn’t want to tell him his fears. Talking to the Head — to Forge — was different. Forge was older, more understanding. And DiamondBlade knew that Plower was a few years older than him — relatively speaking — but that didn’t mean that DiamondBlade felt comfortable admitting everything to him. They were friends, sure, but DiamondBlade didn’t usually go up to his real-life friends and tell them everything that he was scared of. “A friendly talk…” DiamondBlade murmured. “I don’t know if I really want to…”  
“Oh, come on,” Plower insisted. “You told Forge. Please? I might be able to help you. And besides, I have something to tell you as well.”  
DiamondBlade shrugged. He’ll understand. He’s my friend. He’ll understand, he kept telling himself. So then he told Plower what how he felt. He told Plower what he had told Forge. He told him how he felt about the responsibilities weighing him down. The whole time Plower sat there beside him, silent, his face unreadable. “That’s pretty much what I told Forge. That’s how I think about being the Warrior,” DiamondBlade finished. Then he stared at Plower. Does he think I’m being unreasonable? Diamondblade thought, worried. I must have sounded like a pouty kid. I hope he doesn’t think of me any lower. Suddenly feeling a surge of anger at Plower, he furiously thought, Well, he did ask me. So he doesn’t have a right to judge me.  
“Well,” Plower finally said, “I can tell that you’re being honest. Truthfully, I can’t exactly relate to you as well as Forge could. I’m only a farmer, not a Head. But I can give you this advice — focus on what you have to do now, and then think about your duties in the future after.”  
“That sounds like what Forge told me,” remarked DiamondBlade.  
Plower hid his arms in his sleeves like DiamondBlade was used to seeing villagers do and confessed, “We do think alike. Sorry that I can’t give you any other help.”  
DiamondBlade waved his hand to show that it didn’t matter. “It’s alright. So…do you understand what I’m saying?”  
“Sure I do,” agreed Plower. “Don’t worry. Thanks for being honest with me, DiamondBlade.”  
DiamondBlade nodded. “Okay,” he said, “I’ve told you what you want to know. Now, you said that you had something to tell me. What is it?”  
Plower suddenly looked embarrassed and ashamed at the same time. “Ahh…well, you see…I don’t know if I should…do I really — ”  
Before Plower could tell DiamondBlade what he wanted to, he was interrupted by a low hiss in the trees behind them. DiamondBlade’s eyes widened, and he quickly reached into his inventory and grabbed his sword. He didn’t turn around. “Plower,” he said quietly, “what was that?”  
Plower removed his hands from his sleeves and grabbed his sword. “I don’t know.”  
DiamondBlade stood up and put on his armor. “Put your armor on,” he ordered quietly. “I’m going to go check. Stay here.”  
Plower donned his own iron armor and nodded. “Be careful.”  
DiamondBlade turned around and crept towards the trees, which quickly became a forest biome. He held his sword out in front of him to prevent any jump attacks. “Who’s there?” he demanded into the trees. “We heard you hissing. Come out.”  
The low hiss came again, and DiamondBlade trembled. He glanced back at Plower, who motioned for him to go on. Okay, DiamondBlade decided, he wants me to kill whatever’s in there. I can do that.  
He brushed past the first tree and glared into the forest. Everything was silent. DiamondBlade put his hand on the trunk and peered up into the thick leaves of the first tree, expecting to see something jump down onto his face. But there was nothing. “I don’t really see anything,” DiamondBlade called to Plower.  
“Are you sure?”  
“I don’t know…”  
“Then keep checking!”  
Geez, DiamondBlade thought, annoyed. One would think he’s paranoid. Then something black flashed in front of him from the left. DiamondBlade froze and lifted his sword. “Who’s there?” he yelled, his voice shaking. The hissing came again from the right. DiamondBlade instinctively turned toward the noise, gradually getting deeper into the forest. “Get back out here!” Plower yelled, scared.  
“There’s something in here,” warned DiamondBlade. “Get the horses. We should — ” His voice rose to a shrill scream as something sprang onto his chest without warning. He fell to the floor, wildly swinging his sword, before he could figure out what it was. Burning pain flared in his side.  
“DIAMONDBLADE!” shouted Plower. Footsteps behind DiamondBlade told him that Plower was running to his aid. A sword flashed over him, and Plower knocked the black creature off of DiamondBlade’s stomach. DiamondBlade gasped as his HP lowered, and he sat up and stared at the wriggling spider. “A spider?” he growled.  
Plower nodded and stabbed his sword through the spider’s abdomen, causing it to flash red and die. It left behind a spider’s eye and XP orbs, which Plower took. “Yeah. And I don’t think that was the only one.”  
Plower extended his hand to DiamondBlade, and DiamondBlade grabbed it and pulled himself up. “There are more?” he groaned.  
“Uh-huh. Just listen.”  
The two stood back to back and walked slowly into the forest, their swords held protectively in front of them. “I know that they’re here,” murmured Plower. “Be ready.”  
“I am,” reassured DiamondBlade.  
Another hiss echoed through the trees, and this time there were multiple hisses. DiamondBlade felt his blood chill. “That’s a lot of them,” he whispered.  
Plower growled through his teeth. “Ready?”  
“Yes.”  
“Good.” Plower took a breath and started counting down. “Three…two…one…now.”  
DiamondBlade and Plower opened their mouths and shouted simultaneously. The bushes stirred as the spiders grew agitated, and all at once a huge flood of black arachnids poured out of the trees. DiamondBlade barely had time to cry, “There’s too many of them!” before a spider fell onto his head, silencing him. DiamondBlade stumbled into the crowd of spiders, shrieking in pain. The sharp tips of the spiders’ legs ripped at his legs and stomach, and DiamondBlade felt himself losing his HP. He slashed in wild arcs, the pain subsiding for a while. He reached up with his free arm and grabbed the spider on his head, forcing himself not to flinch at the sharp stings, and threw it into the forest. Then DiamondBlade could see all of the spiders. There were tons of them. He whirled around and saw Plower taking down many, killing two with each swipe of his sword. DiamondBlade grinned. The sight of his friend winning the battle gave him energy. He slashed at the spiders in front of him, and he sliced behind him when he heard a hissing of another spider ready to jump onto his back. DiamondBlade trudged through the sea of monsters, ignoring the loss of his HP and the pain the spiders inflicted on him, making his way to Plower.  
“Plower!” DiamondBlade yelled. “You know we can’t fight them all off!”  
“I know!” agreed Plower grimly.  
“We need to get back to the horses and get out of here. As fast as possible!”  
Plower nodded. “Sounds okay!” He pulled out five snowballs and hurled them at the spiders, each one finding its mark.   
Snowballs. Why didn’t I think of that? DiamondBlade scolded himself. He reached into his own inventory and found a few eggs. He threw those at the spiders, which drew them back, but didn’t kill them. Then he turn and ran. Then he realized that they were incredibly deep in the forest…and DiamondBlade had no clue where to go. DiamondBlade skidded to a stop and called, “Uh, Plower…”   
Silence.   
“Plower?”  
There was no answer.  
DiamondBlade wheeled around and yelled, “PLOWER! Where are you — Plower!”  
The NPC wasn’t dead, but he was lying on the grass in the middle of all the spiders with his eyes closed. DiamondBlade was willing to bet that his HP was almost zero. Plower’s body was flashing red repeatedly, but he didn’t seem to die. His chestplate, leggings, and helmet were all broken and gone, and his boots were dangerously cracked. The spiders didn’t strike at him, though. DiamondBlade screamed, “GET AWAY FROM PLOWER!” and dove into the mob of spiders. He struck as many as he could, but their numbers were simply overpowering. Soon he was pinned against a tree, the spiders slowly crawling closer. “I’m warning you, spiders,” he growled. “Don’t get any closer.”  
As if they actually listened to him, the spiders halted and stared at him with beady red eyes. DiamondBlade blinked. “Did you actually…”  
“Noooo,” hissed the spider in the very front. “We dooo noooot take oooorders from a usssser.”  
DiamondBlade’s heart stopped. “Oh, great, you spiders talk too. First, talking endermen. Then a talking skeleton. Now a talking spider. What’s next, talking cows?” DiamondBlade knew that his sarcasm was really a front for his complete terror of the situation.  
Another spider let out a hiss of laughter, as did many others. “Yoooou are a wiiiitty oooone. Weeeeee knooow who you aaaare, DiamondBlade,” snarled the same spider. “The Warrior hasss cooooome.”  
That brought grumbles from the bristling arachnids. “I don’t suppose you’d be happy about that,” chuckled DiamondBlade nervously.  
The spider’s eyes gleamed evilly. “Noooo. Weeeeee dissslike your kind, yoooou essspecially.” The spider clacked its mandibles impatiently. “Aaand we only haaave oooone sssssolution for pessssky ussssers.”  
DiamondBlade gripped his sword tightly. “And what would that be?”  
The spider spat, “Death!” and jumped forward, its legs outstretched.  
DiamondBlade yelped and slid down the tree, barely missing the spider. The other spiders all screeched and surged forward, intent on killing DiamondBlade. DiamondBlade felt blows rain down on him, causing stinging pain to agonize him and his health level to lower. He gritted his teeth and pushed through the monstrous crowd, trying to reach Plower. He started to sprint, and he was able to leap out of the sea of spiders and reach the unconscious NPC. DiamondBlade threw his sword into his inventory and scooped Plower up in his arms, who groaned and fell limp. DiamondBlade whirled around and glared at the spiders, his eyes burning. “Are you really going to attack a lone user and a half-dead NPC with your numbers?” he shouted. “Where’s your honor?”  
The spider who had spoken before — who DiamondBlade assumed was the spiders’ leader — angrily snapped, “Sssspiderssss don’t have honor. Nnnnor do we neeeed it.”  
DiamondBlade reluctantly dismissed the idea of fending off the spiders with words. And it was obvious that he couldn’t defend himself. So he knew which option he would take between fight or flight — he had to get out of there. And fast. DiamondBlade hesitated a moment longer to hurl one more egg deep into the spider mob. The egg broke the spiders’ concentration, and for a moment they were occupied. In that moment, DiamondBlade whirled around and dashed into the trees. His heart was beating fast, and sweat fell down his brow. DiamondBlade jumped over streams and crashed through bushes, and the entire time he could hear the angry hissing of the mass of spiders behind him. DiamondBlade risked a look over his shoulder and shrieked. The lead spider was only two blocks away from him, and it screeched, “YOOOU CANNOT ESSSCAPE!”  
DiamondBlade didn’t respond. He sprinted faster and faster, and he began to see the end of the long forest. I hope Dawn and Midnight find us, he wished silently. Adrenaline coursing through his heart, DiamondBlade ran even faster, ignoring his low hunger. Plower began to wake up, and he murmured, “What…DiamondBlade? Did we escape?”  
DiamondBlade gasped, “Not exactly!”  
Plower peered over his shoulder and gasped. “Put me down!”  
DiamondBlade stopped for a second and put Plower down, and then they started running again. Plower looked a bit pale, and DiamondBlade breathlessly asked him, “Are…you…okay?”  
Plower nodded, breathing heavily. “Just a bit roughed up.” He wheezed and stumbled a bit, growling to himself.  
DiamondBlade glared ahead. “You almost died back there, Plower.”  
“I had it under control, don’t worry.”  
“How, by lying there and waiting for one of them to finish you?”  
Plower snapped, “There were too many. We should stop wasting our energy on talking. Come on, we’re almost there!”  
Plower pulled ahead, and DiamondBlade took a minute to place six dirt blocks in a two block high tower that was three blocks wide. Then he ran again, grinning as he saw the spiders take a few precious seconds to climb up and around the structure. The light ahead of them got brighter, and DiamondBlade heard Plower sigh in relief. Something neighed behind them, and Plower glanced back and shouted, “It’s the horses! We’re almost safe!”  
DiamondBlade started jumping as well as sprinting, which got him a bit farther. He knew that his health was very low, but at the moment, he didn’t care. Something stung him in the back. DiamondBlade looked over his shoulder and saw the huge spider that had talked to him snarling angrily. DiamondBlade whipped his sword out and smacked it into the crowd. “Plower! Wait up!”  
Finally they reached the end of the forest. Plower and DiamondBlade ran faster…faster…and then suddenly the ground gave out beneath Plower. The NPC shrieked, and DiamondBlade shouted and lunged forward. He barely caught Plower’s shirt, and his grip started to slip. They had ran to the edge of a cliff. DiamondBlade sighed and pulled Plower all the way up. They staggered backwards, closer to the end. The spiders flooded out of the forest, grinning gruesomely in happiness. DiamondBlade glanced at the cliff edge. Pebbles fell loose from the stone and fell down into the surging river below. Great. A river. Just what I needed. DiamondBlade felt like he was in a movie — this was always what happened. The character would go the end of the cliff and heroically save his friend, falling into the river. Everyone would think the hero was dead, but then he would appear and show everyone that he was alive. Then everyone would live happily ever after. The end.  
“That would be great,” muttered DiamondBlade to himself.  
Plower looked over at him, his eyes shining with worry. “What was that?”  
“Nothing.”  
DiamondBlade’s chest felt empty, as if his heart had fallen all the way to his shoes. The lead spider scuttled through the mob of spiders and smiled, mandibles clicking. “I have told yoooou. There issss noooo essscape.”  
“Do you have a plan in that big brain of yours?” whispered Plower.  
DiamondBlade felt a lump form in his throat. “I’ve got nothing,” he murmured. “I’m sorry.”  
Plower grunted and drew his sword. “Then we can go the classic way,” he laughed dryly.  
DiamondBlade shook his head and put his hand on the farmer’s shoulder. “No,” he protested. “We shouldn’t do that. We’re on a cliff, facing…what, twenty spiders? Fifty? The only thing that will come out of the fight option will be our deaths along with maybe only ten spider deaths. Think, Plower. Look at all the options.” DiamondBlade already knew what he was going to do. He just wanted Plower to understand.  
Plower glanced over the cliff, then at the advancing spiders, then back at DiamondBlade. “You’re not really — ”  
“Would you rather get torn to bits?”  
“I suppose not.”  
The spider spat in impatience and demanded, “Whaaat are yoooou going to doooo? Fight us, or die quickly in submissssion.”  
DiamondBlade scoffed, “So you’ll just kill us either way.”  
The spider didn’t answer. It only hissed in anger and held up one of its long front legs and let out a shriek. The spiders behind him all screeched back in reply and leaped forward, their fangs bared. DiamondBlade ordered, “Now!” and grabbed Plower’s hand. Plower only shouted, “I think you’re crazy!” and ran to the edge of the cliff. They hesitated for a moment, and Plower stared at DiamondBlade. “Can I trust you?” he whispered.  
DiamondBlade held Plower’s hand tighter. “I’ll be there with you. Are you ready?”  
Plower gulped and nodded. With the spiders only three blocks away, they had no choice. They both closed their eyes, crouched, and then jumped straight off the cliff. Tons of spiders fell with them, and as DiamondBlade fell towards the river, he felt a few slashing at his back, launching him into pain. But DiamondBlade didn’t care. He only focused on the grip of Plower beside him. Then they hit the water.


	10. Down by the River

Bubbles surged around DiamondBlade. He slowly opened his eyes, and he saw Plower floating in the water with him. The water! DiamondBlade nearly gasped. He stopped just in time, remembering he was underwater. He kicked through the river and grabbed Plower’s arm, and he started swimming as fast as he could to the surface. But he couldn’t hold his breath forever — DiamondBlade had never been that good of a swimmer, and now he had extra weight. He knew he couldn’t swim by himself. DiamondBlade pushed Plower in front of him and slapped him. Plower slowly opened his eyes, and then flinched. Am I dead? he mouthed.  
DiamondBlade shook his head and pointed upwards. He made sure his expression showed his fear. His lungs were screaming for air already. Plower nodded and grabbed his hand. Together they kicked through the water, and DiamondBlade was feeling lightheaded. His vision began to fade in and out. Just as he was about to pass out, Plower pulled him up onto the surface of the water. His head broke into the air, and DiamondBlade gasped for air. Plower grinned. “Hey, we survived!”  
DiamondBlade coughed and agreed, “That’s a plus.”  
They were floating down the river current, and Plower pointed at the sky. The sun was starting to go down. “Luckily we’re going in the right way. This river flows north, which is where the Ender Kingdom should be. And the horses are right…there!” Plower pointed behind DiamondBlade, who twisted in the water and saw two horses, one brown and one black. They were running beside the river, and DiamondBlade saw the chests of food still on their backs. “Good horse!” he called to them. Then he turned back to Plower. “Should we get out?”  
“Whenever you’re ready. The spiders who fell with us are dead, by the way.”  
Good. DiamondBlade started kicking through the water, and he swam with powerful swipes of his arms. Within a few moments he was at the riverbank, and he pulled himself onto the dirt. Then he rolled onto his back, breathing hard. Quickly he removed his armor and sighed with the sudden loss of weight on his body. Plower came out soon after. The NPC chuckled and pulled DiamondBlade up. “You showed quick thinking up there, DiamondBlade. Good job.”  
DiamondBlade laughed and shrugged. “Thanks. But I’d prefer not to go high diving ever again. And you’ll need new armor.”  
“I can agree with both statements…”  
The horses reached the pair and neighed. DiamondBlade smiled as he thought that Dawn was scolding him. “Sorry, Dawn,” DiamondBlade apologized, stroking the mare’s mane. “I won’t do that again, don’t worry.”  
Dawn whinnied and pushed her muzzle onto DiamondBlade’s chest affectionately. DiamondBlade smiled and went to the chest on her back. He selected four cooked pork chops and a cookie. He ate them up quickly, relishing the feeling of a full stomach. Plower ate too, as well as putting on a new set of armor. When they were refreshed, Plower asked, “So what’s the game plan?”  
DiamondBlade looked out at the sparkling blue waters of the river. The lowering sun cast a golden glow over it. “We should follow the river as far as that ravine…” — here DiamondBlade pointed at the two steep mountains ahead of them that the river cut through, forming a ravine — “…and camp at the base for the night. We’ll keep close to the river until we reach the Ender Kingdom. But if the river even flows the slightest bit east or west, we have to abandon it and keep going north. I want to reach the Ender Kingdom in the next week or so…ten days at the latest. Do you think that could happen?”  
Plower nodded. “Perhaps, if we’re fast enough. Lead on, DiamondBlade.”  
They saddled their horses and put on their armor. DiamondBlade stayed a bit farther ahead than Plower, but he stayed close enough to talk to his friend. As they got farther from the cliff they fell from, DiamondBlade remembered that Plower was about to tell him something before the spiders interrupted. “So, Plower,” began DiamondBlade, “you were…ah, you were going to tell me something earlier. What was it?”  
Plower looked as if a fresh wave of sadness had washed over him, and DiamondBlade suddenly felt embarrassed for asking. “Sorry, you don’t have to — ”  
Plower shook his head and held up his hand. “It’s fine. I just don’t want you getting mad.”  
“Why would I get mad?”  
“Because…because…ah…how should I put this? Reader and I had a very…close…relationship.”  
“What do you mean by that?” DiamondBlade wondered. “And how is this supposed to make me mad?”  
“Because…” Plower swallowed. “DiamondBlade…Reader was my grandfather.”  
DiamondBlade felt his heart stop. “Wait. Reader was your grandfather? Then…what…” DiamondBlade remembered the look that Plower had given Reader when they left. That other emotion that DiamondBlade had detected in Plower’s eyes…that was love. That was a grandfather-to-grandson love. “I’m so sorry, Plower…”  
Plower’s eyes were watery. “Don’t be. That’s why I wanted you to believe that Reader could still be alive — I needed your help so that I could believe. I know he’s dead, DiamondBlade. I miss him more than you, I bet.”  
DiamondBlade nodded sadly. “Oh, Plower…”  
Plower sniffed and wiped his eyes. “He taught me everything I know. Wheat loved him, too. Now he’s gone. It’s like my own father — who’s off in another village, visiting his sister, thankfully — has died. And now…nothing will make it better.”  
DiamondBlade didn’t say anything else. There was nothing he could say without making it worse. He closed his eyes and turned to look in front of him. Wow, he thought. I would have never thought it…Plower is Reader’s grandson. Was, really. I can’t believe it. Now I feel even worse…I know that I could have stayed back and saved him. I’ll never forgive myself. “I killed Reader…” whispered DiamondBlade. “…I’m so sorry…”  
Plower picked up his words and stared at him. “What?” he said incredulously. “You think you killed my grandfather?”  DiamondBlade shrugged. “I did leave him behind…”  
“So? I left first. Stop blaming yourself! I don’t blame you! Forge won’t blame you! Iron won’t blame you! Neither will Farmer! So you definitely shouldn’t blame yourself. You’re beating yourself up, DiamondBlade.” Plower’s voice quivered, and he bit his lip as he finished talking. “I…I think you were actually really brave to do that.”  
“Brave?” DiamondBlade gaped at Plower. “Brave? You think I’m brave? I was such a coward! I left your grandfather!”  
Plower nodded. “I know. That’s what makes you brave. Not that Reader died, of course,” he added, seeing DiamondBlade’s horror-stricken face, “but that you had the courage and sense to leave matters to him. I know you didn’t want to. You’d be insane if you wanted to leave my grandfather there. But even though caring for others is great, you have to remember about your own safety. The greatest known heroes save everyone but themselves. Why? Because their stories are the most exciting. But the bravest ones are able to save everyone and themselves. Maybe they aren’t as heroic as others, but their stories are never sad. They make the sacrifices they must, and they prevail. You, DiamondBlade, made the sacrifice that saved you, me, and the village.”  
“But I didn’t save everyone,” protested DiamondBlade. “Reader is gone!”  
Plower nodded. “I know. But you were still brave, despite that. Because I know that deep inside, you knew that the only way that you could be the Warrior was to let Reader fight the monsters for you and me so that we could leave. In a way, your decision to leave Reader there could affect the fate of an entire kingdom.”  
Plower sighed and settled into a calm silence, as if to let his words sink into DiamondBlade. DiamondBlade thought about what his friend said, and it did make him feel a tiny bit better. “Thanks, Plower,” he sighed.  
Plower beamed at DiamondBlade and dipped his head. “Hey, we’re friends. Friends make friends feel better,” he reasoned.  
DiamondBlade felt the blood rush to his cheeks. “You know, Plower, I’ve never really had a friend like you,” he confessed.  
Plower raised an eyebrow, and he chuckled, “Call me surprised. You’re a nice guy. What do you mean, a friend like me? I know you have tons of friends.”  DiamondBlade agreed, “Sure, I do. I have my best friend Danny, I have Alex, Sawyer…but none of them are you. None of them are as understanding as you are, Plower.”  
Plower’s eyes widened. “Well, I should feel flattered. You’re saying that I, a simple invention of Notch and is barely a digital being, is more understanding and better than your real friends from the User World?”  
DiamondBlade chuckled. “Better would be a little strong…”  
“Never mind. Thank you, DiamondBlade. I try.”  
They didn’t speak for a long time. Their horses walked on, getting closer to the ravine. The sun got lower in the sky, and DiamondBlade glimpsed a zombie moaning through the trees. He held out his sword, in case the zombie tried to attack, but it only glanced at him and turned away. DiamondBlade rolled his eyes and put his sword away. He heard shuffling beside him, and he turned to look at Plower. When he saw what was in the NPC’s hand, he raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Plower,” he said, “explain to me where you found the time to grab an enchanted diamond sword.”  
Plower beamed and held the gleaming purple-blue blade out. He answered, “Hey, I’m a villager. And villagers are supposed to trade with passing users. This was one of my earlier trades — a diamond sword with enchantments for thirty-seven emeralds. I guess I hung onto it, because none of the users who checked out the trade wanted it.” Plower looked at the sword a little longer, and then decided, “You know, you can have it, DiamondBlade.”  
DiamondBlade blinked. “Me? But I don’t have any emeralds.”  
Plower nodded and waved the sword in front of DiamondBlade’s hand. “It’s alright,” he told him. “Your name is DiamondBlade, and you’re the Warrior. All you have is an iron sword. Don’t you think it’d be fitting for the most important NPC in Minecraft history to have a proper enchanted diamond sword?”  
The most important NPC. DiamondBlade felt his heart jump at Plower’s words. I’m an NPC, I guess…why does that make me feel more important?   
Apparently Plower thought that DiamondBlade’s silence meant that he was considering taking the sword. Plower coaxed, “It has Fire Aspect II, Sharpness IV, and Power II…”  
DiamondBlade laughed and rolled his eyes. “Okay, I get it. Hand it over. How may levels did you use on it?”  
Plower eagerly gave DiamondBlade the enchanted sword while saying, “Thirty five. Enjoy.” DiamondBlade gladly took it and swung it through the air, admiring its clean sweep. “You know what? I think I like it more than my iron sword.”  
“What a surprise.”  
DiamondBlade reached into his own inventory and tossed Plower his own two iron swords. “I wish I had more to give you…at least an enchantment or something.”  
Plower put DiamondBlade’s old iron swords in his inventory and shrugged, “It’s alright. It’s a gift from me. But I’ll be sure to enchant both of these swords next time we come across an enchanting table.”  
DiamondBlade swung his sword through the air again. “So, Fire Aspect, Sharpness, and Power, huh? That’ll help. There’s nothing funnier than watching flaming pigs and zombies run around.”  
Plower laughed, but then he grew more serious. He remarked, “I should probably give you back one of your swords for general use, you know. Like, I don’t want you going around hitting random animals with an enchanted diamond sword and using up some of the sword’s damage points.”  
“That makes sense,” agreed DiamondBlade.  
Plower reached into his inventory and gave DiamondBlade one of his swords back, and again they lapsed into silence. Through the thick tree leaves, DiamondBlade could see the moon start to make its way into the sky. The sky was getting darker, and it was getting harder to see. Thankfully, they were nearing the ravine base. DiamondBlade and Plower made their horses gallop the last hundred blocks, so they wouldn’t be caught by any monsters. It was dark by the time they actually made it. They dismounted their horses and each took a baked potato. Plower sat down quietly as DiamondBlade used his fists to destroy ten pieces of wood to craft a crafting table, some sticks and planks, and two fences. Then Plower took out two leads and tied the horses to the fences. They neighed quietly as DiamondBlade dug down in front of them and filled the hole with water. After tossing them five carrots each, he sighed and sat down beside Plower, who had lit a small fire. Plower snorted and tossed his flint and steel to the side, which promptly broke. DiamondBlade stared at him as he complained, “That was the last use I would get from that set of flint and steel. And I don’t have any more.”  
DiamondBlade sorted through his inventory and shrugged sadly. “Yeah…and I don’t have any flint, either. Sorry, Plower.”  
Plower sighed and stood up, a stack of cobblestone in his hand. “It’s alright. Now, help me build a little house around us. I don’t want any midnight surprises.”  
DiamondBlade nodded and dug up a stack blocks of cobblestone beside the river with his pickaxe. Together Plower and DiamondBlade put up a four block tall house around them that was six blocks wide. They then dug out the dirt underneath them and replaced it with cobblestone. Plower took out a few torches and lit the dark area. “There,” he said, satisfied. “Now I feel better.”  
DiamondBlade yawned, put the spare cobblestone in his inventory, and laid down in the corner. “Good night, Plower. We’ll head into the ravine tomorrow. Get some sleep.”  
“Sounds good. Good night, DiamondBlade,” smiled Plower. He sat against the wall and murmured, “I’ll stay up a bit.”  
“Suit yourself.” DiamondBlade closed his eyes, and before long, he was fast asleep.

 

***

 

A brisk hand roused DiamondBlade from a dreamless sleep. “Wha…what?” muttered DiamondBlade. He sat up abruptly and looked around. The horses were still there, alert and awake. Plower was kneeling in front of them, a worried look on his face. “DiamondBlade!” he hissed. “We really have to go. They found us.”  DiamondBlade furrowed his brow. “Who found us?”  
Plower was getting more and more agitated each second. “Just come on! They can’t break in, but if we don’t get out of here, they’ll catch us. Get up and get out your pick.”  DiamondBlade didn’t ask any more questions. He jumped up and took his iron pick out of his inventory swiftly. Plower was untying the horses, and he had his own pick out. “Should we get on the horses?” DiamondBlade asked.  
Plower nodded. “We need as much speed as possible.”  
They saddled Midnight and Dawn and rode them to the side of the cobblestone wall that was facing the ravine. Plower took a breath and growled, “Get ready to run as soon as we break this wall down.”  
DiamondBlade nodded and started to dig his way out with his pick. The blocks crumbled under the iron, and soon there was a four block high opening in the cobblestone. Plower yelled, “GO!” and bolted out the gap. DiamondBlade squeezed Dawn’s side, and she instantly started galloping after Plower. DiamondBlade strained to turn around, and his eyes opened wide as he saw what they were running from. The river was swarming with swimming spiders, and there were even more scuttling on both riverbanks. Even through the gaps in the thick leaves, DiamondBlade could see spiders swinging from tree to tree. “Oh, great,” DiamondBlade muttered. “They got a whole lot more spiders.”  
Hisses and snarls rose from the great assembly of spiders. They made DiamondBlade’s heart drop like a rock, and DiamondBlade made Dawn run even faster. But when DiamondBlade saw what was ahead of him, he felt the blood drain from his face. They were about to enter the ravine, and there was only a two block wide riverbank with the sheer ravine mountain side on their left. The river broke into cataracts on their right. It was obvious how slowly DiamondBlade and Plower would progress through the ravine. “Hey, Plower!” yelled DiamondBlade to the NPC in front of him. “We got a problem!”  
Plower looked behind him at DiamondBlade. His eyes were wild with fear. “Yeah, I know. I have a solution, but I know you won’t like it.”  
DiamondBlade glanced back at the spiders chasing them. They were getting closer. “Okay…but you might want to make it quick!” He urged Dawn to go faster, and he got closer to Plower.  
Plower slowed down to get to DiamondBlade’s side. “We could always jump on one horse, Dawn or Midnight, which would let us get through this ravine faster. But then we’ll end up leaving one horse behind,” added Plower, after seeing DiamondBlade open his mouth to protest, “and I don’t think that you would like that. Nor do I. So…I’m guessing that option is out?”  
DiamondBlade felt helpless again. “Yep. Do you think we can find somewhere safe to talk, for a minute?”  
Plower looked around and shook his head. “No. Talk now. Hurry; we won’t get another chance.”  
DiamondBlade quickly started talking. “Okay. I was thinking that since this is a ravine, there might be a few caves in it, right?”  
Plower shrugged. “Depends. Usually, yes, I think so.”  
“Cool. Maybe we could go hide in one, seal up the entrance, and then see if we can leave the ravine through the cave system…”  
“Yes, but there are two things that might go wrong. One is that the cave we go into may not even be a cave system. The second is that we have to be going north, and the cave system — if there is one — could lead us down into the ground or put us off course.”  
DiamondBlade frowned. “My plan wasn’t supposed to be foolproof, Plower. I’m sorry.”  
“Well, it’s the only plan that both of us will agree with,” sighed Plower, looking at the wave of black spiders that was gradually getting closer.  
“You agree with it?”  
“Of course. It’s not perfect, but it’ll save us. Let’s go!”  
They snapped their reins on their horses, and Dawn and Midnight went faster. Soon they were on the little strip of land beside the cataracts and the sheer mountain side — DiamondBlade and Plower had entered the inside of the ravine. As they entered, DiamondBlade felt a physical chill run down his back. He felt a change in the temperature — it got colder, and DiamondBlade saw that the two mountains that created the ravine each stretched out a quarter over the river, casting a dark shadow over the rapids. At least the whitewater will slow down the spiders, hoped DiamondBlade. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?  
The horses started to get jumpy, and DiamondBlade felt Dawn shivering violently underneath him. He stroked her mane and murmured, “Hey, it’s alright. Just keep going. We’ll be fine.”  
Dawn snorted and ran a bit faster, but she didn’t stop trembling. DiamondBlade just hoped she wouldn’t throw him into the cataracts by accident.  
They kept inching through the ravine beside the roaring river, frantically searching for a cave to hide in. The spiders were even closer now, but DiamondBlade did glimpse a few dead spiders rushing down the swift currents. The sight of them slightly lifted DiamondBlade’s spirits. Then he heard Plower shout, “Over there! Look!”  
DiamondBlade stared over Dawn’s head. Plower was pointing to the opposite side of the river with his sword. DiamondBlade turned to see where Plower was looking and gasped as he saw a huge cave opening about fifty blocks above the ground in the side of the mountain that was easily fifteen to twenty blocks wide. “I guarantee that’s a cave system,” grinned Plower without any real happiness. “We just have to get over to that side.”  
Inwardly DiamondBlade’s stomach was doing 360 flips and turning inside out, but he forced himself to look for a way over the river. His eyes rested on a few stone blocks scattered in a crooked line across the river. He looked back at the spiders and swallowed in horror. They were now scuttling sideways on the mountain side, and the way DiamondBlade and Plower came was now blocked with tons of other spiders. They were constantly bumping each other off of the thin riverbank, though, and into the water. “We can jump over those rocks,” DiamondBlade told Plower. “It’s risky, but we can escape them from there.”  
Plower gaped at the stone blocks that DiamondBlade pointed to. “Are you kidding me?” Plower protested. “One miscalculated jump and then boom! Dead in the river!”  
DiamondBlade’s impatience spilled over, and he snapped, “I don’t suppose you have any other good ideas?”  Plower gave DiamondBlade an injured look. “You’re right. I’ll go first. Hold the spiders off.”  
DiamondBlade nodded and unsaddled Dawn. He pushed his horse behind him and held his new diamond sword out to the incoming spiders. “Hurry up,” he warned.  
Then the first spiders began to attack. Plower and Midnight jumped the stones carefully, and DiamondBlade furiously slashed at the spiders. With each hit, a spider burst into flame and stumbled into the spider mob. DiamondBlade kept slashing, feeling small stinging sensations as an occasional spider struck out and hit him. None of them tried to hiss and talk to him, so he assumed the spider that had swore bloody murder on him the day before was either dead or decided to miss this little fiasco.  
He had gotten so caught up in the fighting that DiamondBlade almost missed Plower shouting, “DiamondBlade! It’s your turn to cross, now!”  
DiamondBlade swatted down one more spider and glanced towards the direction of Plower’s voice. The NPC was standing on the other side of the river, waving at DiamondBlade. Midnight was shaking water off of his mane and snorting. DiamondBlade grabbed Dawn’s reins and called, “I’ll be right over! Start building your way up!”  
Plower nodded and started building a set of cobblestone stairs up the mountain side. DiamondBlade then turned to the spiders and taunted, “Come on, spiders! If you want me, bring it!”  
The spiders hissed in outrage and swarmed forward. That was just what DiamondBlade was counting on. He swiped his diamond sword in an arch and hit each spider that sprang at him. Each body that he hit burst into flame, and DiamondBlade kicked the flaming spiders into the bigger mob, hoping that the spiders on fire would set the other ones blazing. And they did — the fires spread quickly, because of the tight formation. High pitched wails of agony met DiamondBlade’s ears, and he was glad for it, as much as it ashamed him. But not all the spiders died. The spiders in the back and on the side of the mountain retreated for a few moments to avoid becoming toast. They bared their teeth and snarled angrily at DiamondBlade while they waited for the flames to die down.  
DiamondBlade saw that and backed towards Dawn, ordering, “It’s time to go, Dawn.”  
Dawn snickered in agreement and ran with DiamondBlade to the stones. The user observed the stone blocks and gulped as he saw waves crashing over them, covering it in water and making it hard to keep balance. It’s too small for me to ride Dawn over, guessed DiamondBlade. I don’t know how Plower got over, but I know how I will.  
DiamondBlade slapped Dawn’s side and commanded her, “Over the river! Go!”  
Dawn bucked and trotted to the edge of the riverbank. She pawed the ground and then leaped over the water. DiamondBlade dashed to the water’s edge, minding the strong current, and held his breath as he watched his horse land on the first stone. Dawn looked a bit frightened at first, but she gained confidence as she crossed the roaring river. Her steps became flawless, and she got faster and faster until she jumped the last stone and ended up beside Midnight. The black stallion neighed approvingly and bumped her with his muzzle, then led Dawn up the cobblestone stairs to where Plower was still building.  
DiamondBlade’s throat felt dry. “My turn,” he muttered. He put his sword away and took out six spare blocks of wood and quickly built a small barricade between him and the spiders. DiamondBlade knew it wouldn’t hold them off, but he did want to slow them down. He took a breath and grabbed his lead, just in case he had to use it. After one last look at the spiders, DiamondBlade backed up to the mountain side, crouched, and sprinted to the riverside. He bunched up his muscles and gathered his courage. Then DiamondBlade jumped as far as he could. DiamondBlade shouted as flew through the air, and then felt his heart leap with relief as his feet landed on the first stone. “Come on!” yelled Plower. “You can make it!”  
The NPC and the horses were in front of the cave opening. “I can do it,” DiamondBlade told himself fiercely. He swung his arms and jumped again, gasping as his feet scraped the edge of the next stone block. He staggered, losing his balance, but luckily he regained it and kneeled down. DiamondBlade grabbed the edge of the stone block and braced himself as a huge wave of cold water slammed against the rock. The water splashed over DiamondBlade’s back, and he spat out a mouthful of river water. Then he stood up and jumped again, barely making it to the third one. There were only two more. Just as DiamondBlade was about to jump to the second to last one, he heard Plower cry, “DiamondBlade! Look out!”  
DiamondBlade turned just in time to see a spider leaping at his face. He yelled and swung a fist at it, knocking it out of the air and sending it into the water. He felt sweat form on his brow as he watched the spiders start to crowd the riverbank and begin to swarm onto the rocks. Spiders were constantly being pushed into the water, but none of them seemed to care. They just wanted to see DiamondBlade dead. DiamondBlade complained, “Oh, come on! Why can’t they just leave me alone?”  He turned around hastily and jumped, landing square in the middle of the stepping stone. Plower sent down words of encouragement. “Let’s go, DiamondBlade! You can do it! Just one more, and then we’re safe! You got this!”  
I don’t know about that, worried DiamondBlade. The last stone was farther than the others. DiamondBlade would have to really jump if he was gonna make it. Then he reasoned, I do have a lead. Why don’t I use it? DiamondBlade scanned the opposite riverbank quickly — the spiders were starting to get confident about their footing. His eyes rested on a stray birch tree on a block five blocks up the mountainside. It was almost bare; there were hardly any leaves on it. The pale trunk, though, looked strong and sturdy. “Perfect!” grinned DiamondBlade. He glanced behind him and nearly jumped into the water in horrified surprise. The spiders were on the stone right behind him, their eyes gleaming with hunger. But DiamondBlade refused to give them the satisfaction of seeing him show any fear. He snapped, “Hey, spiders! Go find a different snack, because this one doesn’t give up without a fight!”  
That only seemed to fuel their rage, and they started to get ready to jump. Swallowing, DiamondBlade swung his lead — which he was now using as a rope — and flung it as hard as he could towards the birch tree trunk. It flew through the air and looped around a branch. DiamondBlade pulled it taut, and it held. He let out a sigh and turned around. The spiders hadn’t jumped quite yet, but DiamondBlade was willing to bet that they would at any second. He took out the stone sword that he had first made in Minecraft and aimed it at the spiders. He didn’t care about it; he had iron and diamond, and anyways he could always make another one easily if it really mattered to him. Which it didn’t.  
DiamondBlade hurled the sword straight into the spider mob, killing a few of them and knocking a few back. Then he turned back around, stepped back, and jumped with all of his might. The rope carried him across the river, and DiamondBlade whooped as he swept over the water. The rope got him to the stone easily…but then it went too far. DiamondBlade had underestimated the strength of the lead. It completely bypassed the last stepping stone and carried him even further. DiamondBlade yelled, “Wait! No, this isn’t what I — ”  
It was too late. He was already going farther. DiamondBlade started to lose altitude, and he was about four or five blocks away from the shore when his feet fell into the water. The cold temperature numbed his legs immediately, and the current swept DiamondBlade’s entire body into the water. His ears pounded, and DiamondBlade barely heard Plower shriek in panic. He was fully in the water now, being pushed along with the current. Then his head dipped under the water, and the rushing water overhead didn’t let him get back up. It was all he could do to not panic and die. Fighting the tide and the freezing water, DiamondBlade struggled to hold onto the rope. He held on with both hands so tightly that his knuckles began to ache. Then he started to climb back up the lead. It was the most terrifying thing DiamondBlade had ever done — in Minecraft and in his own world. It was one hand after another in the chilling water. And even through the water, DiamondBlade could hear Plower’s distorted voice as he screamed at him to hurry up. What am I supposed to do? protested DiamondBlade silently, feeling frustration wash over him like the current. I’ve never been underwater rope climbing!  
His lungs were aching for air again. DiamondBlade was tempted to take a big breath, but he was underwater. That would be a mistake. DiamondBlade closed his eyes and kept pulling; he was kicking now, too. Finally he broke through to the surface, and DiamondBlade gasped for breath. The air was cold and misty; the sky was getting a bit darker. DiamondBlade opened his eyes wide and thought, alarmed, Again, I’ve never realized how quickly these short days go by in Minecraft! In real life, it would only be about…what, half an hour? Not even an hour!  
The spiders looked confused. They were on the last block, though, about to cross over to the other side. DiamondBlade coughed out a mouthful of water and kept hauling himself through the river, getting closer and closer to the riverbank. He kept his eyes on the spiders the entire time. DiamondBlade lifted his eyes up to the mountainside and saw Plower staring over the edge of the stairs that he had built to get to the cave. “Are you alright, DiamondBlade?” he yelled down to him.  
DiamondBlade coughed again and shouted back up, “Could be better! Do you have a bow?”  
Plower was silent for a moment, and then he abruptly nodded and held a bow up high so that DiamondBlade could see it. “Yes! What do you want me to do with it?”  
“I need you to cover my back! Shoot the spiders — as many as you can; hit them off the stone and into the water. If you can kill them, that would be great.”  
“On it!”  
DiamondBlade waited for a few seconds, and then suddenly arrows began to rain down on the spiders and the rocks. Satisfied, DiamondBlade kept climbing until something struck him on the back. It sent a line of pain snaking up his neck, causing him to flash red as he lost a bit of HP, and he twisted around to see what it was. There was a feathered shaft sticking up on his back, and DiamondBlade, annoyed, glared up at Plower, who was still shooting down multiple arrows. “Hey!” shouted DiamondBlade. “Not me!”  
Plower didn’t look at him, but DiamondBlade heard him apologize, “I’m sorry! Just don’t get into the line of fire!”  
DiamondBlade would have given him a very intelligent answer to that, but at the moment he had to save his strength. He only grunted and kept climbing. At last he pulled himself out of the water, and he wrapped his hands around the tree trunk and hauled himself out of the water. With numb fingers DiamondBlade untied the lead from the trunk, and then he collapsed. Water streamed off of his clothes, and he lied there, stealing his breath back.  
Reality hit him a moment later — literally. As he was getting ready to make his way up the mountain to Plower, something sticky and stringy hit him square in the neck. DiamondBlade stiffened and staggered. It didn’t cause any pain, but it wouldn’t come off. DiamondBlade turned around and protested, “What is…oh…you…”  
His voice died in his throat as DiamondBlade realized that the spiders had shot out multiple lengths of string towards him. They had stuck to his back, and now they were trying to pull him backwards. DiamondBlade whirled around in vain and whipped out his regular iron sword, quickly slicing through the web string before the spiders could pull him back into the river. As soon as he was free, he bolted to the rock stairs. Plower shouted, “Hurry, DiamondBlade! You’re almost here!”  
DiamondBlade didn’t respond. He just kept running. The spiders had finally reached the shore, though, and now they were making their way towards him. DiamondBlade gasped and started sprinting. He nearly fell off the cliff when a spider suddenly popped up in front of him. Plower and DiamondBlade both cried out in unison. Luckily, before DiamondBlade or the spider could react, three arrows streaked down from above and struck the spider. The spider wasn’t killed, but the arrows sent it falling right back down the cliff. “DiamondBlade!” warned Plower. “They’re climbing up the side! They’re almost on you!”  
DiamondBlade stepped to the edge of the block and looked down. He felt a wave of nausea when he saw what looked like one huge black creature surging up the mountainside towards him. “How great,” he whispered. “They want my autograph.” DiamondBlade abruptly whirled around and started taking the stairs two at a time, sprinting up with all his might. The spiders scrambled up the edges of the blocks and instantly gave chase. DiamondBlade’s breath came in choppy pieces as he got higher up, and he was soon almost there. But the spiders were only half a block away. DiamondBlade could feel their pointed legs tearing at his clothes, and he yelped in pain as some of the sharp ends found his skin underneath. Plower yelled and shot down more arrows at the spiders, trying to clear them away from DiamondBlade. But they kept coming.  
Soon he was only twenty stairs away from Plower. Something jumped on his back, but DiamondBlade only took a second to ram into the wall backwards to kill the spider. Then he kept running. Fifteen blocks. Almost there. The black arachnids appeared in his way. DiamondBlade merely drew his iron sword and knocked them back down the mountain. Ten blocks. Nine. He was close. Then Plower was directly above him, extending his arm to him. “Come on!” he urged. “Grab my hand! I’ll pull you up!”  
DiamondBlade gasped, “Thank you!” and reached up. He grabbed something — but it wasn’t Plower’s hand. It was the leg of a spider that had jumped in front of him. DiamondBlade’s hand exploded in pain as he touched the pointed bristles on the spider’s leg. DiamondBlade cried out and yanked his hand back as the spider angrily started slashing at his face. An iron sword came down swiftly, killing the spider, but the damage was done. DiamondBlade could feel his hand pounding in pain, and for the first time he thanked Minecraft for not being all blood-and-guts death like real life would be. “Come on, DiamondBlade! Are you alright?” worried Plower, his voice raspy.  
DiamondBlade didn’t answer. He was too busy trying to clear the spiders from his feet. They were like his own shadow; they were swarming around his legs and tearing at his HP. DiamondBlade’s legs were on fire, and he was afraid that his sword would soon run out. He hit one last spider away and jumped up, anxiously reaching for Plower’s hand. Plower grunted and caught DiamondBlade’s hand. DiamondBlade wheezed, “Pull me up! I don’t think I have much HP left!”  
Plower coughed and strained to pull DiamondBlade up. “I can’t!” he choked. “You’re too heavy!”  
No, I’m not, thought DiamondBlade indignantly. Then he realized that the spiders were starting to climb up legs and back, which was probably causing DiamondBlade to get heavier. How am not dead yet? wondered DiamondBlade, lightheaded. He couldn’t find the strength to speak to Plower, but somehow DiamondBlade was able to gasp out, “Come down here…clear these spiders out…”  
Plower shook his head furiously. “If I let go of you, you’ll be killed?”  
“No,” DiamondBlade protested, exhausted, “I…I don’t think…just get down here…help me…”  
Plower’s eyes glittered with concern. Then he let go of DiamondBlade, and the user fell back down into the mob of spiders. Every nerve was felt like it was aflame; even through DiamondBlade’s feverish mind, he wondered how he had ever thought of Minecraft as simply a game. Now he understood how the creatures within Minecraft felt when they were killed either for defense or for food — mobs for defense, animals for food — and DiamondBlade didn’t know that when he got back…if he ever got back…if he would ever be able to kill another pig again. But he knew he would hate spiders forever, starting today, because right now they were about to kill him. And he still had no idea how he wasn’t dead.  
DiamondBlade realized that the pain was starting to lift; there weren’t as many spiders striking at him. Plower was standing over him, defending him from the mob. DiamondBlade felt sluggish, but he struggled to his feet and drew his sword to help his friend. It was all he could do in his thanks. Plower turned around and protested, “No, DiamondBlade — if you take one more hit, you’ll die. NPCs can sense how much life a user has left. You have less than half a heart — if that’s even possible. Get up to the cliff, DiamondBlade. I’ll be right there. Get the horses inside the cave.”  
“I won’t leave you, Plower,” growled DiamondBlade.  
“You stupid persistent user. I can take care of myself!”  
That’s what Plower said about Reader — that he could take care of himself. And he died. Even so, DiamondBlade knew that greater battles would be coming up when they reached the Ender Kingdom, and the key to victory would be the trust in your army. In this case, it was trust in Plower. “Okay. Don’t die, though, because I can’t make this trip without you,” warned DiamondBlade.  
Plower turned away from him and taunted the spiders with swings of his sword. To DiamondBlade he laughed, “Shut up and stop making me feel special.”  
DiamondBlade turned around and ran up the stairs. He could feel his HP regenerating slowly. He reached the cliff and saw the horses anxiously trotting around the entrance to the cave; they neighed in relief once they saw DiamondBlade. “No, get into the cave,” he insisted. “Plower’s coming up soon. Go inside.”  
It definitely was a cave system, and DiamondBlade hoped they wouldn’t get too lost. He pushed Dawn and Midnight into the entrance of the cave and placed most of the remnants of the cobblestone stack he had used on the house the night before in the huge entrance to make it a bit narrower. It would make it easier to seal when Plower came in. “Now, stay,” DiamondBlade told the horses. Then he ran out and stared down at Plower. The farmer was swinging his sword expertly at the spiders, forcing them down the stairs. DiamondBlade called, “Plower!”  
Plower glanced up to look at DiamondBlade. “You ready for me?”  
“Yep! Come on up!” DiamondBlade reached down and grabbed Plower’s hand. The NPC kicked one last spider away and jumped up. Together they rolled onto the cliff, and Plower swiftly darted to the stairs and broke them down with his pickaxe. He didn’t bother to retrieve them again. The spiders were already making their way up to the cliff. Plower dashed back into the cliff and pulled DiamondBlade in with him. “If we’re lucky, they won’t catch us,” exclaimed Plower.  
The NPC entered the cave first, and DiamondBlade took a minute to kill the first spiders on the cliff. Their angry hisses reached his ears, and he felt himself start to tremble again. Then he ran into the cliff and took out the pieces of cobblestone. He swiftly placed them in the entrance, and then he and Plower were plunged into darkness.


	11. The Reader Arrives

DiamondBlade slumped against the sealed entrance wall and sank down to the ground as Plower took out a torch and placed it on the floor, lighting up the first ten blocks of the cave system. The horses were on the floor, already asleep. Plower took out a stack of dirt and then started blocking off the way into the rest of the cave system about ten blocks into the cave, so no nighttime mobs that would spawn in the cave could get to them. Then he walked over and kneeled down in front of the torch and sighed.  
“Are you alright?” asked DiamondBlade quietly. “Did you lose any HP?”  
Plower shrugged. “Maybe. Probably. It hurts. But you’re worse than me. Lay down, DiamondBlade. I’ll get you something to heal you up.”  
“You have some potions?” rasped DiamondBlade as he stared into the torchlight.  
“I brought five regeneration potions with me. I put them in Midnight’s chest,” replied Plower. “I can give you one.”  
As Plower rummaged through the chest on the black stallion’s chest, DiamondBlade asked, “Are you going to use one?”  
Plower paused and glanced at him. “No. I’m hurt, but not as bad as you. And I don’t want to use any more. It was just spiders. We’re going to face worse enemies. But you’re important, and I want you to be in top shape when we meet the next challenge.”  
DiamondBlade didn’t protest. Plower let out a quiet little yelp of excitement as he found one of his potions. He brought over the glass bottle filled with light pinkish-red liquid over to DiamondBlade. Gratefully DiamondBlade reached up and gingerly took the potion in his hands. Little particles lifted surrounded the glass bottle, and DiamondBlade peered at the liquid inside. It was swirling around slowly, a swirl of red and pink. For the first time, DiamondBlade wondered what the potion — this one and all the others — tasted like. When he would play Minecraft when he was still in the real world, he would drink tons of potions. Strength potions, invisibility potions, swiftness potions, all of them. And even though he’d never actually drank poison or weakness potions — although he was pretty sure he had accidently used a poison splash potion on himself in his noob days— DiamondBlade sure made them. But he never wondered what about how they tasted. Of course, DiamondBlade never needed to, but now that he was really in Minecraft, he immediately thought about how the regeneration potion tasted. Trembling, DiamondBlade uncorked the glass bottle and gasped as a sweet smell flooded out of it and reached his nose.  
“Sure smells good, doesn’t it?” chuckled Plower. “You’ve never tasted one for real, I know. Believe me, I’ve drank many of them. You’ll like it; just make sure you don’t drink too many. Not that it’d hurt you, that’s for sure. But like I said, you don’t want to waste them.”  
DiamondBlade gave Plower a half smile and raised the potion to his lips. He tilted it upwards and felt the cool potion flow into his mouth. Tasting it, he immediately poured in the rest. It tasted almost like hot chocolate, even though it wasn’t warm, and there was a tang of strawberries in it. DiamondBlade felt his heart lift at the memory of his dad bringing out fresh baked chocolate-chip cookies from the oven when DiamondBlade was younger. He missed home more than ever.  
Within moments the potion was gone, and instantly DiamondBlade felt himself grow more energized. A surge of adrenaline rushed through him as his HP was restored. He put the now empty bottle on the floor and sighed in happiness. “That was great,” he admitted. “Do you guys get the supplies from the Nether?”  
Plower nodded. “Normally I probably wouldn’t share the secrets of the villages, but with you, it’s okay. In every village in Minecraft, about twenty blocks underground is a corridor that leads to what we call the Nether Cave. In there is a working Nether Portal, and the blocks that make up the cave around it are usually made of obsidian, netherrack, or nether brick. There would be nether wart growing in soulsand on the border of the cave. I can’t say where the entrance to the corridor to the Nether Cave would be, because it’s different for each village. Each Nether Portal spawns you in an NPC-made fort; that’s where the Portal is. Each NPC fort is made of nether brick so that none of the Nether mobs would suspect ‘intruders’ in their land. Usually there is a mine close to the NPC Nether fort so that we — the NPCs — could easily bring back Nether quartz, more netherrack, and other Nether blocks like that. I’m not sure if it’s the same in the other villages, although it probably is, but our Nether fort has a nether wart garden near the portal. We can make potions very easily using the nether wart garden. In our fort, we also have enclosed spaces with blaze and zombie pigmen spawners. We use the blazes obviously for blaze rods, which we turn into blaze powder. The pigmen are there so that if we ever want gold supplies, an NPC can go into the spawn room and kill the pigman or pigmen in hopes for a gold sword or their other drops. Other than that, we rarely go into the zombie pigmen room.”  
“Wow,” remarked DiamondBlade. “That’s pretty cool.”  Plower grinned. “It is,” he agreed, his voice cracking with pride. He scooted over next to Midnight and laid down on the stallion’s flank. Midnight shifted and snorted softly as Plower sighed, “This time it’s my turn to sleep first. Break the torch and put it in either your inventory or one of the horse chests when you decide to rest. I’ll feel better tomorrow.”  
“Okay, Plower. I’ll sleep soon,” said DiamondBlade quietly, but Plower was already asleep.

 

Something cold woke DiamondBlade. A chill ran up his spine, and abruptly DiamondBlade sat up, his sword in his hand. “What was that?” he hissed. But no one heard him. Plower was still lying against Midnight, his chest rising and falling with each sleeping breath. The horses, of course, were also asleep. DiamondBlade put his sword away, took out an iron pick, and broke down one block of cobblestone. The sky outside was pale, and he could see that the daylight was coming soon. But what had woken him up?  
“DiamondBlade.”  
That chill came again. DiamondBlade whirled around and held his sword back out in front of him again. “What was that?” he repeated. Nervousness began to gnaw at his stomach. “Who’s in here?”  
“DiamondBlade. Break the blocks down and meet me outside.”  
DiamondBlade hesitated. The voice was more audible in his head this time. It sounded more…real. He wanted to know who was speaking to him, but he wasn’t sure if he should go outside of the cave. “But you might be waiting to kill me,” he whispered. DiamondBlade wasn’t sure who he was talking to, but somehow he knew that whoever was talking to him could hear him.  
There was a whisper of laughter in his head, and then the voice came again. “I promise you, DiamondBlade, this isn’t a trap. You’d do well to listen to me.”  
That did it. DiamondBlade’s curiosity overtook him. “Alright. But don’t have any weapons with you…whoever you are.”  
“No promises…”  
DiamondBlade rolled his eyes and took out a pick. Glancing behind him once to make sure Plower was still asleep, he broke down two cobblestone blocks and slipped outside. DiamondBlade quickly replaced the gap and took a breath of the fresh air. Nighttime mobs were still roaming around, but the sun was quickly rising. Whoever wanted to meet with him would have to hurry before Plower woke up. “Okay,” he announced, “I’m here. Who are you, and what do you want with me?”  
The voice was suddenly silent. DiamondBlade strained to hear the answer, but none came. He was about to give up and go back inside the cave when the voice abruptly chuckled, “You better move.”  
Automatically DiamondBlade dove to the side and took out his lead, just in case he fell off of the cliff. Right where he was standing, a bright beam of light materialized and hummed with powerful energy. DiamondBlade shielded his eyes and glared into the light. “Who are you?” he demanded.  
The newcomer did not answer. The light started to fade, and DiamondBlade saw a figure in the midst of the raw energy. He could see a sword in the newcomer’s hand, and DiamondBlade suddenly felt really scared. The light finally disappeared, and DiamondBlade found what looked like a regular user standing in front of him. But he knew that this wasn’t a user — it was an NPC. The NPC had long, pale brown and blond streaked hair that fell down his shoulders and his back. His eyes were brilliant green, and they shone with energy. His white robe fell down to his ankles, and the edges of the collar, sleeves, and bottom of the robe was adorned with diamond-blue silk. A sash fell diagonally over his left shoulder and down to his waist that was similarly colored to the silk. He had sandals on his feet, and the sword that DiamondBlade saw he was carrying looked like gold. Because of the terrible durability that he knew a golden sword had, DiamondBlade assumed that the sword was more of an accessory than an actual weapon. A simple, thin circlet of diamond sat in his wispy hair.  
The newcomer smiled and held out his sword towards DiamondBlade in a friendly gesture. “I have heard that the Warrior has come,” he mused.  
DiamondBlade narrowed his eyes. “Oh, really?” he asked. “How did you know?” This was certainly the person who was talking to him in his mind; the only difference was that the newcomer’s voice was more clear and human.  
The newcomer put his sword away and crossed his arms. He replied in a mysterious tone, “Haven’t you heard of me, though?”  
DiamondBlade blinked. “You? No…no, I don’t think so. I don’t know who you are, and I’ve certainly never seen you before.”  
The NPC chuckled. “Of course you haven’t. I’m not even alive. I died a long time ago.”  
“Oh…then how are you here?”  
“Spirits can easily appear whenever they want, DiamondBlade.” The newcomer paused, and then smiled, “You don’t believe you’re seeing me, do you?”  
DiamondBlade shuffled his feet. “Not really. Am I dreaming?”  
“No,” responded the NPC. “I assure you that you are fully awake.”  
DiamondBlade sighed. “Okay. Now please, tell me who the heck you are,” he pleaded. “If I ever have to explain this to Plower — ”  
The newcomer’s eyes widened and frantically waved his hands to cut DiamondBlade off. “No, no, you can’t tell your friend about my presence,” he protested. “He mustn’t know that I was here.”  
“Does he know you?”  
“Well, no, not technically, but…never mind. It doesn’t matter. I just don’t want anyone to know about our little conversation — that’s private. Only between you and me. Is that clear?” he asked cautiously.  
DiamondBlade bit his lip. “I guess,” he answered. He wouldn’t tell Plower about this, but he didn’t like the secret he would have to keep from his friend.  
The newcomer’s face showed his relief. He beamed, “Thank you. Now I can tell you who I am.” He took a breath and then continued, “My name is Dustedlight, the reader of King Strongshaft, who delivered the Prophecy of the End.”  
DiamondBlade immediately felt a surge of mixed feelings at this NPC. He felt a wave of anger aimed at Dustedlight for delivering the very Prophecy that caused DiamondBlade to enter Minecraft and become the Warrior, which he never really wanted to become. At the same time, DiamondBlade felt that he should be taking orders from Dustedlight, like he was in debt to him. That made DiamondBlade feel furious, because he didn’t want anything to do with this ancient reader.  
Dustedlight started to look uncomfortable. “DiamondBlade,” he began, worriedly, “I understand your anger at me — ”  
“How could you?” DiamondBlade exploded. “I haven’t even reached the Ender Kingdom, and I already hate my responsibilities I will have to face! How could you? I never wanted to enter Minecraft! I didn’t want to become the Warrior!”  
Dustedlight sighed. “I know. Believe me, I know. Don’t be angry with me, though, I beg you. It was never my intention to have to bring in an actual user from the User World into Minecraft.”  
“Really?” asked DiamondBlade. He felt a bit surprised at Dustedlight’s feelings. “I didn’t know…”  
Dustedlight shook his head. “Hush. We shouldn’t talk out here. We’re too exposed,” he added, with an angry look towards an enderman that was getting a bit too close to them. “Come; I know of a place where we can talk.”  
DiamondBlade shrugged helplessly. “But it’s dawn. The sun will be rising.”  
Dustedlight looked up at the sky and declared, “Not if I can help it.” He closed his eyes and spread his arms out to the side. His robe billowed around his feet, and DiamondBlade’s head suddenly felt like it was spinning in a rapid circle. DiamondBlade’s vision swayed and he fell to the floor on his knees. He closed his eyes until his head cleared, and then he dared to look up. What he saw amazed him. The sky was dark again, and the stars and the moon were frozen in place. Somehow Dustedlight spun back time and then stopped it right after. “Wow,” breathed DiamondBlade. “How did you do that?”  
Dustedlight opened his eyes and folded his hands back into his sleeves like a regular NPC. He grinned, “I am a spirit. I can do many things.” He turned so that his back was to DiamondBlade and took out his golden sword again. “Now, come. I will show you where we are going to talk.”  
Without waiting, Dustedlight jumped down over the gap that Plower had dug to prevent the spiders from climbing over the previous day and landed neatly on the stone stairs below. Then he swept down the cliff swiftly, still without looking back. DiamondBlade put his own sword away and quickly jumped down the cliff. He held his breath as he fell through the air. His feet slammed onto the edge of the stone stairs, and DiamondBlade had to regain his balance before he fell off towards the ground below. Dustedlight was waiting for him at the bottom of the mountain. The NPC spirit was kneeling on the riverbank, and he was trailing his fingertips through the water. With a start DiamondBlade realized that the river was quiet and still; it wasn’t the roaring riptide that it had been the day before.  
“Did you do that?” asked DiamondBlade as he ran down to meet Dustedlight.  
Dustedlight looked up and stood. “Do what?”  
“The water. It’s just so still. Yesterday it was rushing through this ravine. Did you make it calm?” explained DiamondBlade.  
Dustedlight nodded. “Actually it isn’t calm. But it is still. Remember, I stopped time for us, which includes the course of the river tide. Come; across the river.” Dustedlight walked over to where the stones were, and then he effortlessly and quickly jumped across the stepping stones. He turned around and raised an eyebrow, as if he was saying, Are you coming?  
DiamondBlade thought in awe, How does he do that? and ran over to the side of the riverbank. He didn’t hesitate when he jumped; he landed easily on the first stepping stone. Again he was faced with a large gap between this one and the next, but he wasn’t as worried as last time. If he landed in the water, he could just swim to the stone. And he did — he missed the jump and splashed into the water. DiamondBlade bobbed up to the surface and gasped as he climbed back onto the rock. As he shook his head, he saw Dustedlight chuckling at him. DiamondBlade frowned and hopped the rest of them easily. “It’s this way,” Dustedlight smiled. Then he turned and started running back upstream.   
DiamondBlade followed closely, although he wasn’t sure where Dustedlight was taking him. Were they going to the woods in front of the ravine? But as Dustedlight kept leading him, DiamondBlade realized that they weren’t going into the woods. Dustedlight actually took out a stack of dirt and looked back at DiamondBlade. “It’s underwater, DiamondBlade,” he remarked. “It’s in the base of this ravine. I’ll dig a little bit out into the river, and then we start swimming underwater. You’ll have to follow me closely, okay? I’ve already dug out the entrance. Are you ready?”  
DiamondBlade nodded. “Lead on.”  
Dustedlight went to the edge of the water and started building a narrow dirt bridge out. DiamondBlade kept following until Dustedlight finished building out ten blocks from the shore. “Okay. I’m going to jump in. Wait a few before you do, and then come follow me. This water is clear, so you shouldn’t have trouble seeing me.”  
“Got it,” replied DiamondBlade. Dustedlight looked down at the water and then jumped in. The water quickly closed over his head, and DiamondBlade counted down from three before holding his breath and hopping into the river. The water was cool on his skin, and it was refreshing as he sank deeper. Dustedlight was floating in front of him, and he motioned with his hand with a clear gesture: Follow me. He swam lower into the river and then leveled out; as DiamondBlade followed, he began to see the entrance. It was a small, almost imperceptible five by three entrance in the ravine wall. Dustedlight swam towards it and jumped inside. As DiamondBlade knew, instead of flowing into the cave like it would in the real world, the water would instead flow in front it and never actually enter it. DiamondBlade swam towards the opening and stumbled into the cave, taking in a big breath of air and sighing.  
Dustedlight was wringing the water out of the bottom of his robe. DiamondBlade shivered as he twisted the edge of his shirt and squeezed some of the water out. The temperature in cave was really cool, and DiamondBlade had to hunch down and hug his knees to his chest to gather some more warmth. Dustedlight gave him a look of pity and apologized, “I know it’s cold. I’m sorry. Come; I have some flint and steel with me. It might help.”  
DiamondBlade stood up and watched as Dustedlight broke a block of cobblestone on the floor with his bare hands quicker than DiamondBlade could ever imagine and replaced it with a block of wood. “That will burn up quickly,” protested DiamondBlade.  
Dustedlight glanced at him and smiled. “I know. It’s okay, though. It’ll be warmer; and besides, I don’t think you really want to build a working fireplace right now, do you?”  
DiamondBlade shrugged. “No. Not really,” he admitted.  
Dustedlight brought out his flint and steel and kneeled over the wood. He struck the flint with steady hands swiftly. Sparks flew down from the flint and steel and fell onto the wooden block, making it flare up in flames instantly. Dustedlight quickly drew back and sat down a block away from the fire, motioning for DiamondBlade to come over. DiamondBlade hobbled over and also sat down, extending his hands in an attempt to warm them. The warm crackles of the flame easily made him feel better, and after a few minutes, when the fire began to die out, DiamondBlade feel as good as new.  
“I should tell you, DiamondBlade, that the place I am about to bring you to must stay secret,” explained Dustedlight as he put his flint and steel away. “You definitely cannot tell Plower where this is. It is a secret cave that I have built to speak to NPCs — and now you, DiamondBlade. I’ve built many caves all around the entire Minecraft world, and throughout all these years, only I know where they are.”  
DiamondBlade raised an eyebrow. “But couldn’t a user just dig around and stumble upon one by chance or luck?”  
Dustedlight shook his head. “No. Many of them are coated with bedrock, and a user would just stop and wonder what’s in there. If they aren’t coated with bedrock, like this one’s case, I…enchant it, you might say. No one can get in unless they know where the entrance is, and even if they dug all the way down to bedrock and then cleared out a million blocks around, they would never be able to find it. It needs the touch of a reader to activate it. And, both bedrock-coated and not, my caves aren’t exactly a physical place. They are in a Nether-like place, another dimension. That’s why only I can reach these caves.”  
DiamondBlade felt a bit embarrassed when Dustedlight finished speaking. “And you’re showing them to me?” DiamondBlade smiled quietly. “That’s an honor.”  
Dustedlight stood up and dipped his head. “Yes, but after all, I am in your debt.”  
DiamondBlade caught his breath. “What…what do you mean?” he asked quietly.  
“I have delivered your Prophecy, which is also the current Prophecy. Even though it was me who caused you to come to Minecraft, you will be the one to make the Prophecy of the End come true. That is why I will do what I can to help you.”  
“But…you won’t just help me because of the Prophecy, right?” clarified DiamondBlade. He didn’t want to be getting helped by Dustedlight just because Dustedlight wanted his Prophecy to come true.  
Dustedlight’s eyes widened in horror. “No!” he exclaimed. “I assure you, I am not doing this just for the Prophecy. That was never my intention. Yes, I will help you because you are the Warrior and the subject of the Prophecy of the End, but also because now I believe you are my friend.”  
Are we? wondered DiamondBlade. He still didn’t feel completely at ease with this NPC who changed his life forever. But I suppose we can be friends for a little while. “Yes,” he murmured, “we are.”  
Dustedlight smiled. “I’m glad. Follow me.” He turned and walked in the left direction. DiamondBlade hurried after him, and he saw that there was a narrow tunnel in the wall. “Are we going there?” he asked.  
Dustedlight nodded. “Yes. But you must stay close. Soon it will become completely dark, and I won’t be putting any torches for light.”  
“Why not?”  
“Well…I have my reasons. Trust me.”  
DiamondBlade sighed and stayed silent as he and Dustedlight entered the tunnel. It quickly grew darker, and DiamondBlade had to brush against the wall to keep going in a straight line. Within a minute, he could no longer see Dustedlight’s form. The NPC’s breath and his occasional mutter was the only thing that told DiamondBlade that Dustedlight was in front of him. A few minutes later, the mutters and Dustedlight’s breath even became inaudible. The silence crashed down on DiamondBlade like a soundless wave, and he felt like his heart was beating louder and louder. Finally he couldn’t stand the bleak silence and blurted, “Dustedlight, are we almost there?”  
No one answered him. DiamondBlade started to grow nervous, and he called out, “Hey…are you…are you still there? Dustedlight!”  
Still nothing. Then, farther up the tunnel, Dustedlight’s voice answered him. “DiamondBlade! I’m sorry; I didn’t know you were so far behind! Stay there; I’ll come back to you.”  
DiamondBlade waited in the darkness as the footsteps ahead of him pounded back towards him. Something firm grabbed his hand; for a moment DiamondBlade was surprised until he realized it was Dustedlight. “And yes,” the unseen NPC said, “we are almost there.”  
DiamondBlade let Dustedlight pull him through the tunnel, trusting that he wouldn’t make him bang into a wall. He closed his eyes, knowing that it wouldn’t make much of a difference, anyway. A few minutes later, the temperature in the tunnel started to grow warmer. DiamondBlade opened his eyes and relaxed as he saw a light at the end of the long corridor. He could see the outline of Dustedlight and his green eyes glittering in the darkness. “What is that?” DiamondBlade asked. “Torches? We aren’t close to the surface, I know — I haven’t felt any incline.”  
Dustedlight nodded. “Yeah, we’re still deep underground, somewhere underneath the ravine. That light you see is a lava pool down here. The entrance to the cave is actually underneath the lava.”  
“Underneath?” exclaimed DiamondBlade. “How do you expect me to — ”  
“Don’t worry, DiamondBlade. I’ve seen many users do this. I’ve spied on a couple of PvP games to pick up ideas for my own secret caves, and I’ve explored users’ bases. The trick I’m using is about a three-block thick layer of lava hovering five blocks over water. We’ll drop through the lava — and yes, we’ll lose a bit of HP — and then fall into the water, which will stop us from burning. That is where the cave is.”  
DiamondBlade remarked, “That’s smart. I actually haven’t tried that yet on my own PvP games. I’ll do that — you know, if I ever get back.”  
Dustedlight didn’t respond, and DiamondBlade realized that he must have sounded harsh. “I’m sorry — ” began DiamondBlade, but Dustedlight held up a hand to interrupt him. “I did not take offense from that, DiamondBlade,” said Dustedlight softly. “I understand that you didn’t mean it like that.”  
DiamondBlade looked down, his vision burning as he realized how kind this NPC was being to him — and it wasn’t just because he was the Warrior. “Thank you,” he whispered.  
Dustedlight led him out of the tunnel and into the cavern with the lava pool. DiamondBlade marveled at the vast size of the cave and the smooth stone surrounding the lava. He glimpsed a zombie at the far end of the cavern, and he opened his mouth to speak to Dustedlight. Dustedlight glanced at him and nodded. “There are many mobs around at this hour. But remember, I have paused time. Look closer.”  
DiamondBlade narrowed his eyes and peered closer at the zombie. That was when he realized it was frozen in place, its arm outstretched and its mouth open in a silent moan. “Oh. I forgot.”  
Dustedlight and DiamondBlade walked to the edge of the lava pool, and DiamondBlade gulped as he felt the heat rising from the boiling, molten rock warm his skin more than what he was comfortable with. “So…” he asked nervously, “…we just…jump in?”  
Dustedlight gave him a crooked smile. “Are you ready?”  
Before DiamondBlade could answer, Dustedlight crouched and leaped into the air. DiamondBlade gasped as Dustedlight splashed into the lava pool and started to sink. Before long, his head disappeared underneath, and DiamondBlade was alone. He swallowed and groaned, “My turn.”  
DiamondBlade backed up, and he squeezed his eyes shut. He sprinted three steps and took a flying leap into the air without opening his eyes. A second later, he hit the lava. His legs instantly screamed in exhilarating pain, and every nerve ignited as if they were on fire. DiamondBlade gasped as he sank into the lava. The burning sensation was more than he had ever imagined, and he didn’t think that he could hold out for any longer. Suddenly the burning fell away, and then DiamondBlade was in midair. Then he splashed into the water beneath the lava, and he opened his eyes and gasped at the coolness of the water as it soothed his burns. DiamondBlade looked at Dustedlight, who was standing beside him. The water went up to his chin, and DiamondBlade was glad for that. “Sorry about that,” Dustedlight chuckled, seeing his pained face. “As an NPC, I’ve felt the burn of lava many times, and it doesn’t bother me much anymore. I forgot, though, that as a user, you’ve never felt it before. I apologize.”  
DiamondBlade shrugged, even though his skin still tingled unpleasantly. “Don’t worry about it. Now, where’s this cave?”  
Dustedlight smiled and walked six blocks to the left. Then he took out an iron pick and dug out a block of stone, which revealed a glowing blue lever behind it. DiamondBlade tilted his head. “Is that…an enchanted lever? I didn’t think you could do that.”  
Dustedlight agreed, “No one but me and a few others have enchanted levers. They require many, many levels. A normal user is unable to do it, as the normal Minecraft programming prevents them from doing it. NPCs do not know how to it. I learned how to enchant levers — amongst many other things — because I am a reader. I will not tell you who or what my sources are.”  
That’s a shame, thought DiamondBlade. If I knew that, then I’d know who gave you the Prophecy of the End. Then I’d go and punch him in the face.  
“During my life in the Ender Kingdom,” continued Dustedlight, “I showed King Strongshaft and Advisor Stonebrick how to enchant different items. I died a little into King Sandblock’s reign — who was Strongshaft’s son — and I believe that Strongshaft had taught his son who to enchant, as well. But before I died, I warned Sandblock not to show anyone else, because if the entire Ender Kingdom knew how to enchant more than tools, weapons, and armor, then the secret would start to leak out. My sources didn’t like me showing everyone how to do this, but they knew that I could trust these NPCs.”  
DiamondBlade said carefully, “Can you…can you show me?”  
Dustedlight sighed. “No…I’m afraid I can’t. At least, not right now. I apologize, but you haven’t really earned all of my trust yet. I don’t know you very well. You have my respect, Warrior, that’s true, but…casting enchantments on everyday items is a very high and special ability. Maybe as time goes on…”  
DiamondBlade shrugged. “Hey, it’s fine. Let’s just get inside and talk already.”  
Dustedlight smiled and put his hand on the lever, swiftly pulling it down. The stones groaned in front of DiamondBlade, and they slid open, letting the water flow into Dustedlight’s secret cave. “After you,” smiled Dustedlight.  
DiamondBlade slowly stepped inside and gasped. The cave wasn’t huge, but it was beautiful. The cave glittered with a blue light, cast by the diamond blocks randomly placed throughout the walls of the cave. A shallow pool gurgled in the middle of it. DiamondBlade walked in, Dustedlight close behind. The reader placed his hand on a block of diamond next to the entrance, and the stones slammed shut behind them.


	12. Explanations

“Finally,” Dustedlight sighed. “We can talk. No one will find us in here.”  
DiamondBlade nodded and felt a bit awkward. What were they supposed to talk about? He sort of remembered complaining to this spirit about his feelings, but besides that… “Um…so…”  
Dustedlight winked at him. “I can tell you’re confused. Now listen here. I didn’t want anyone to hear us because I want to see how much you understand this Prophecy, first of all, line by line. Can you do that?”  
“Maybe. We’ll see,” was all DiamondBlade said.  
Dustedlight nodded. “Okay. So, the first two lines: A hundred years of destruction, a hundred years of death. Warriors will fight until their final breath. You can obviously guess what that means, right, DiamondBlade?” asked Dustedlight.  
“Well, sure,” agreed DiamondBlade. “It means that two hundred years will pass while the endermen keep attacking, and the warriors who fight keep…well, fighting until they die. It’s not too complicated.”  
“Alright, then. Then there’s this line. The kingdom crumbles to its knees; courage and bravery will swiftly flee. Can you explain that? Or shall I tell you what it means.”  
DiamondBlade was a tiny bit confused about that part. “Ah…well, it says that the kingdom crumbles…but obviously the Ender Kingdom is still here. I had a dream — ”  
“Really?” Instantly Dustedlight looked interested. “You’ll have to tell me about it later. Alright?”  
“Sure…but anyway, I guess that it just means that the kingdom gets weaker as time goes on. And it sounds like the warriors are getting scared.” Which makes sense. DiamondBlade remembered the NPC from his dream — Sharpsword, the NPC who had been arguing with Coalfire. Sharpsword had seemed really unfaithful when it came to the Prophecy of the End, but obviously Coalfire was hanging onto the hope of the Warrior. And I have come, thought DiamondBlade proudly.  
Dustedlight shrugged. “The warriors aren’t scared…they’re just…losing their hope. They’ve been waiting so, so long for your arrival. I don’t mean to pressure you, DiamondBlade,” Dustedlight added as DiamondBlade involuntarily groaned, “but I’m just saying, they’ll be happy to see you. Now, moving on: Life will end while the storm rages on; yet the sun will still come at dawn. What does that mean, DiamondBlade?”  
“Erm…I guess that lives are lost continuously with each battle. But the whole ‘sun coming at dawn’ part of it is probably just expressing that the Warrior is coming. Right?” asked DiamondBlade, looking for clarification.  
Dustedlight smiled. “Correct, DiamondBlade. This line should be easy: Two centuries will give way to the Prophesied One — the Warrior will arrive, the Warrior will come.”  
“That is easy,” agreed DiamondBlade. “Two hundred years will pass before the Warrior — me — will arrive.”  
“Exactly. He will save the kingdom, destroy the mobs; else all life will be robbed,” quoted Dustedlight. “I’m sure you understand that line quite easily, whether you agree or like it or not.”  
DiamondBlade grumpily thought, Yeah. Never felt so pressured in my entire life. “I need to become the ‘savior of the Ender Kingdom’ and become a hero,” was all he said.  
Dustedlight frowned. “Well, you don’t have to say it like you don’t like the idea of that — ”  
“It’s because I do. I thought I already made that clear,” snorted DiamondBlade.  
“You have.”  
“Just making sure.”  
“Last line, DiamondBlade: At twilight the moon rises, the sun sets, but the sunrise means the enderman’s death.” Dustedlight raised an eyebrow. “Do you understand that line?”  
Actually, DiamondBlade didn’t fully know what it meant. “Not exactly,” he admitted. “I get that an enderman — probably Overlord Dark Nightmare — will die. But I don’t get the daytime/nighttime stuff.”  
Dustedlight agreed, “Yes. I didn’t fully understand that either when I received the Prophecy, either. But I soon realized that it didn’t mean an actual sunset or sunrise. It means this: during the Battle for Ender — which will be what the final battle will be called — there will be a terrible turn in the war. NPCs will die. You will lose friends. People will lose hope. But those who last through this tide of death will live to see the ‘sunrise’, which will be the showdown between you and the Overlord of Endermen. It sounds like the enderman will die, thankfully, but it doesn’t say anything about the outcome of the Warrior’s life.” Dustedlight looked at DiamondBlade seriously. “It never says that you will…you know, live. Or die,” Dustedlight swiftly added after glancing at DiamondBlade’s terrified expression. “Ah, enough of that. It seems that you do understand this Prophecy. That’s good.”  
Quietly DiamondBlade said, “I know it, and I hate it…”  
Dustedlight pretended like he didn’t hear anything and kept talking. “I must ask you, DiamondBlade, do you know where you are going?”  
“Ah,” stammered DiamondBlade, who was caught by surprise at the question, “well…yes, I think Plower and I do. We’re still traveling in the direction Reader sent us…is this not the right way?”  
Dustedlight held up a hand and shook his head. “No, you’re right. Wait, no, I mean…yes, this is the right way. I just wanted to make sure. Anyway, so it seems that you understand the Prophecy pretty well. That’s good.” He tapped his chin. “So now I want to tell you about the Ender Kingdom and what to expect there, starting with King Knockback.”  
“That’s a pretty cool name,” remarked DiamondBlade, realizing that for the first time. “Sounds like a great fighter.”  
“He is. He had a personal mentor for training — a retired warrior named Copper Bow. He was also King Knockback’s father’s best friend. King Knockback’s father, though, died three months into Knockback’s reign — which was about six years ago, Minecraft time.”  
“Oh. Okay.”  
“Anyway, I don’t know too much about Knockback, seeing that my death was a long time ago, but I know more than an average amount about his history.”  
DiamondBlade couldn’t hide his smile. “Stalker, much?”  
Dustedlight grinned. “Oh, shut up, DiamondBlade,” he scolded lightly. “I’m a spirit, so I can go wherever I want, listen to all the conversations I want to hear, travel to whatever time I wish — but no, I can’t visit the future because that time is not decided yet. In your case, I traveled to the present. But because of my close connection to King Strongshaft and the kingdom, I made it a point to watch over each king from their birth. I was able to do that because I died about two months after Strongshaft passed away. Being a spirit, and all, I knew when the new king was born and I watched them from their first moment. I watched King Sandblock begin his leadership — naturally I couldn’t have watched him be born, because I was alive at that time — and then retire thirty years later. Oakwood was a good king, that was for sure. He led the kingdom wisely, but you don’t hear much of him because of his poor roots. Then there was Ironwing, a courageous military leader. He won almost all of his battles, but he wasn’t very good with politics and the general leadership of the kingdom. Luckily, Ironwing had his second-in-command to do that for him. His name was Lava Ring. Sadly, Lava Ring was killed in one of the enderman attacks.  
“I did this for two centuries. I gave the kings advice in their dreams and watched over them. Then the time came when King Knockback was born during the time of King Chiseled Stone — long name, if I do say so myself. Chiseled Stone was just your average good king, so I stopped watching him and advising him three months before his death — that I knew would come — to watch Knockback during his early years. About a week before my own death years and years before, I was told by the…er…creature…who gave me the Prophecy of the End that the Warrior would come fifty kings after King Strongshaft. I knew that Knockback was the fiftieth Ender King, starting from Strongshaft, so I kept a special eye on him.  
“He was a regular child,” continued Dustedlight after taking a breath. “Not too poor, not too rich. Not a peasant, but not royalty. He was not the son of Chiseled Stone, obviously. Chiseled never married, so he never had a child. No, Knockback was the son of a warrior named Ingot. Ingot was usually off fighting, so he didn’t see Knockback as much as he wanted to. Because the increased number of attacks in the last fifty years, which was maybe…hmm…twenty years before Knockback’s birth, King Chiseled Stone had doubled the number of troops fighting. That meant less family time for Ingot. His wife and Knockback’s mother, Birch, wasn’t happy with that. She did her best to care for Knockback, and she was kind to him, but she was constantly wishing she had a husband to help. Birch was never sour about that, though.  
“Knockback grew, and so did his talent. Like I said before, Birch hired Copper Bow — Ingot’s best friend, remember — to train Knockback personally after seeing his interest in war. Birch wasn’t keen on the idea of her son going off to war because of her husband, but she understood the need for strong warriors. Knockback was just that. Copper Bow trained Knockback hard and sternly, but Knockback didn’t expect any less. He pushed through the tedious training willingly, and on his fifteenth birthday, Copper Bow brought him to King Chiseled Stone in hopes that the king would make him a warrior. Chiseled Stone saw Knockback’s gift and agreed, immediately putting him in the army. Knockback fought with immense bravery, and five long years later, Chiseled Stone raised Knockback to become one of the generals. Knockback was the youngest to ever achieve that. Ingot was actually in Knockback’s section of the army, as luck would have it. Both were ecstatic to see each other again.  
“Time went on, and Chiseled Stone got older. He saw the need for a new king, and he didn’t have a son to take his spot. Lava Ring was dead, and he hadn’t chosen a replacement for him. So naturally Chiseled Stone turned to his strongest warrior — Knockback, surprise, surprise — in hopes that he would take the place of king. Knockback wasn’t as excited as Chiseled Stone expected him to be, but Knockback still accepted. Chiseled Stone retired peacefully with complete faith in Knockback.  
“So Knockback began his reign, and, obviously, he is still alive today. He is very wise. The NPCs love him and are always loyal to the end. No one wants to see him dead. So when you arrive at the Ender Kingdom, the soldiers will naturally be suspicious until you tell them you are the Warrior and Plower is your friend. Knockback is a believer, which means he believes in the Prophecy of the End. He does not know that he is coming during his reign, but he knows that the kingdom will be saved one day — one day very, very soon, right, DiamondBlade?” smiled Dustedlight.  
“Y-yeah…yeah, I guess.” DiamondBlade was starting to find it easier to accept his role, which satisfied him. Truth be told, he wanted to be important despite the responsibility that would go with it, and he did want to save the Ender Kingdom. The only thing is, he doesn’t know how, exactly.  
Dustedlight nodded. “Knockback will be glad to see you. Oh, and I forgot to mention…although he is a believer, there is someone, who…er…who is not so faithful in you.”  
DiamondBlade immediately knew who Dustedlight was talking about. He had, after all, watched this NPC argue against it. “Sharpsword?”  
Dustedlight blinked and asked, “How did you know?”  
“That dream I told you about…”  
“Oh, of course! Please, elaborate. I want to know what this was about, especially if it includes Sharpsword.”  
DiamondBlade smiled. Now it was his turn to explain. “Okay. So, it began in the village where Plower was from, and it wasn’t too important. I met Plower — ”  
“Mind if I ask how?”  
“Erm, he can walk in dreams…”  
“Sure. Why not?”  
“You’ve never heard of those who can do that?”  
“No, I have,” replied Dustedlight. “I’m just saying.”  
“Okay, then,” mumbled DiamondBlade. “Anyway, after I met Plower, I was transported to…the castle throne room, I’m assuming.”  
Dustedlight interrupted, “Wait — did it have tapestries of endermen and the Ender Dragon?”  
“Yeah. How did you know?” As DiamondBlade asked the question, he realized how stupid it must sound. Dustedlight was the reader of King Strongshaft, so naturally Dustedlight would have been in the throne room.  
“That’s the throne room,” agreed Dustedlight. “Carry on.”  
“Anyway, an NPC named…Coalfire, I think…”  
“Coalfire’s a general,” interrupted Dustedlight once again.  
DiamondBlade ignored Dustedlight’s interruption and continued, “…entered the room with two other NPCs, Sharpsword and Goldenheart.”  
Dustedlight nodded. “Yes…they are both part of Coalfire’s army section.”  
“Yeah. They were talking about the Prophecy. Coalfire was trying to defend it against Sharpsword, saying that even though the endermen attacks were getting stronger, they could still last because the Warrior was coming. Sharpsword began to talk about how he thought the Prophecy was fake and all, and Goldenheart had to try and stop him.”  
Dustedlight agreed, “Yes, that does sound normal. NPCs do sometimes argue about whether or not the Prophecy will come true. The ones who fight against it are usually confident in their own abilities, confident to the point where they don’t think they need a savior — you.”  
DiamondBlade worried, “But will they accept me?”  
“I think so. The nonbelievers may have trouble believing your story and accepting that they were wrong to not believe, but ultimately, in the end, they will help you in the final fight.”  
“That’s good,” sighed DiamondBlade. “I don’t want to be the center of a rebellion.”  
Dustedlight nodded and looked up for some reason. DiamondBlade raised an eyebrow as Dustedlight seemed to hear something he couldn’t and nod again. “It’s time for you to go, DiamondBlade,” announced Dustedlight after looking down at him again. “You and Plower must head to the Sea of Endless Sand, now.”  
“The Sea of Endless Sand? A desert?” DiamondBlade groaned. “That doesn’t sound too good.”  
“Don’t worry; it’s not endless,” joked Dustedlight dryly. “It’s just…wide. Very wide. But if you want to reach the Ender Kingdom…”  
“I know, I know, I’ll have to go through the desert. I won’t let you down, Dustedlight, don’t worry.” And I won’t let you down, either, Reader, DiamondBlade vowed silently in his head, remembering the death of his friend. Then he looked at Dustedlight. “After I leave you, though…what then?”  
“What do you mean?”  “Will you still talk to me?”  
“Of course I will, DiamondBlade!” grinned Dustedlight. “I won’t appear to you until you save the kingdom, though…although possibly sooner. I will merely be a voice in your head. Is that alright with you?”  DiamondBlade nodded. “Why wouldn’t it be?”  
“Then are you ready to go back to your friend?” asked Dustedlight.  
“I think so…” DiamondBlade walked over to Dustedlight, who held out his hand. “Well, then, Warrior, I’d just like to tell you that it’s been an extreme pleasure to meet you,” he said solemnly as DiamondBlade accepted his hand and shook it. “It was great to finally see you.”  
DiamondBlade agreed, “Ditto. Thanks.”  
Dustedlight nodded. “I have something for you, by the way.”  
“Really?”  
In response, Dustedlight reached into his inventory and took something that looked like a sword out and held the handle with the blade facing backwards. DiamondBlade shrugged and held out his hand, and Dustedlight carefully pressed the handle into his palm. “The Jewel of Ender,” explained Dustedlight as DiamondBlade gaped at the sword.  
“It’s beautiful,” he breathed.  
Dustedlight smiled. “I know. As a reader of the Ender Kingdom who delivered its Prophecy, I was given this item to give to the subject of it…you. This is the blade of the Prophecy of the End. The blade you will wield in the last battle against the endermen. The blade you will use to slay the Overlord. This, DiamondBlade, is the weapon of the Warrior. Show this to Knockback, and he will understand. He will know immediately who you are once you do — that is, if he hadn’t already figured it out.”  
DiamondBlade shook his head incredulously, still staring at the intimidating elegance of the weapon. Its blade was polished obsidian, and the handle was made of a hard purple stone. Emeralds adorned the rim where the blade jutted out of it. DiamondBlade turned the handle over and, wide-eyed, stared at the tiny, peculiar red-colored Eye of Ender in the middle of it, meaning some enderman with a red ender pearl had been killed for the creation of the sword. “An enderman with a red ender pearl was killed to make this…incredible.”  
Dustedlight agreed, “And not just any enderman, I’ve heard. It was the tyrant Blood Mist, who was the lord of the endermen before Dark Nightmare. Blood Mist ruled for more centuries than I can count — some say he was there even before Minecraft was created, if that’s even possible. Notch definitely didn’t create Blood Mist…it was like the enderman was there already, just waiting for a world to rule. In a way, Blood Mist was the Enderlord…the first enderman.”  
DiamondBlade was suddenly afraid of the blade he held. “The Eye of the Enderlord. Amazing. And now…now I have its power, I suppose. Who killed the Enderlord?”  “No one knows, but the most famous and popular theory is that the Enderlord was slain by Herobrine himself.”  
“Wow.”  
“Yeah. Dark Nightmare, though, is the new Enderlord, though. Blood Mist’s power was passed down to Dark Nightmare. It seems funny, doesn’t it, that Dark Nightmare will be killed by the blade that holds the first Enderlord’s power, doesn’t it?”  
“It does,” murmured DiamondBlade. “But I should go back, now.”  “You’re right,” admitted Dustedlight. “I’ll be talking with you soon, though.”  
DiamondBlade smiled as Dustedlight closed his eyes and spread his arms to the side, palms facing upwards. Just like when Dustedlight was reversing and stopping time, his robe billowed around his feet in the breeze that swirled around DiamondBlade’s body. Dustedlight’s hair also fluttered in the breeze, as did DiamondBlade’s. A warm sensation rose up inside DiamondBlade, and a layer of light suddenly sprang to life around him. Five seconds later, everything around him faded away to black, and, without warning, DiamondBlade’s consciousness abandoned him to darkness.

 

DiamondBlade was laying sprawled out on the stone floor. With a start, he woke up and found that he was back in the cave he and Plower fell asleep in. Plower was laying beside him, his eyes closed. DiamondBlade’s back was cramped, and he sat up and stretched, yawning. Did Dustedlight put me to sleep, or something? How long ago was my audience with him? DiamondBlade knew it wasn’t a dream; Dustedlight had assured him it wasn’t. DiamondBlade had a sudden urge to check his inventory to see if the Jewel of Ender was still there. It was. DiamondBlade pulled out the sword and admired the smooth obsidian blade of it. I can’t let Plower see it, though, DiamondBlade thought reluctantly, or else he’ll wonder about it. Dustedlight said I can’t tell him that I saw him. But can I tell King Knockback when I see him? Surely that would be alright…  
“Yes, you can tell Knockback, of course.”  
DiamondBlade stiffened as someone spoke in his head. Slowly he thought in his head, “Dustedlight?”  
“That’s me,” said the voice cheerfully. “I told you I’d still speak with you.”  
“Oh, good,” DiamondBlade told Dustedlight. “So, yeah, I can tell King Knockback?”  
“Mmm-hmm.”  
“But not Plower.”  
“Right.”  
“Oh…” DiamondBlade frowned. “Can I ever? Like…like ever?”  
Dustedlight’s voice was emotionless as he replied, “We’ll see. I’ll tell you if you can.”  
“Sounds alright.”  
“Oh yeah, and don’t forget to hide the Jewel of Ender from Plower, too,” added Dustedlight.  
Scowling, DiamondBlade told him, “That’s gonna be a bit complicated.”  
“Oh, well, yeah…you’ll have to reveal it in your battles. Perhaps that will be the time to tell him about your audience with me. Naturally, Plower will be cross that you didn’t tell him before, but I’m fine with you laying the blame on me. Alright?”  
“Fine,” muttered DiamondBlade. Dustedlight went silent, and DiamondBlade guessed that he had left the conversation. DiamondBlade shrugged and put the Jewel of Ender back in his inventory before he forgot. Then he sat there, hugging his knees, and occasionally glancing at Plower as he slept. He’s bound to get up soon, assumed DiamondBlade. True, Dustedlight sent me back in the middle of the night, but Plower gets up early. But still…  
After another ten minutes of silence, DiamondBlade couldn’t take it anymore. He sighed and reached over to Plower. DiamondBlade shook his friend’s shoulder and called out, “Plower…Plower! Wake up, buddy. It’s time to go.”  
Plower grunted and opened one eye. “Something happening?” he murmured.  
“Yeah. We’re leaving, now. It’s morning. I know we wanted to travel through the cave system, but somehow I don’t think it’ll be the best idea.”  
“Oh. Okay. I mean, if that’s what you want.” Plower sat up and stretched as DiamondBlade took out a pick and broke down the cobblestone wall. The morning was peaceful, and the sky was turning gray as the sun began to rise. Cool air flooded the cave, and DiamondBlade took a huge breath. The river was rumbling past like it had been the day before, but somehow it didn’t seem as menacing. Perhaps it was because the spiders were absent. DiamondBlade jumped as a loud whinny echoed through the cave behind him; he turned to see Plower holding two leads tied to the horses. “Come on,” Plower smiled. “Lead the way. Oh, are you hungry?”  
“A bit,” DiamondBlade admitted. Plower handed him three pieces of cooked beef, which DiamondBlade ate hungrily. Then he looked up at the side of the ravine and wondered if they should go up or go down. He didn’t see any sign of a desert ahead of them in front of the river, so maybe that meant they had to climb the ravine…but then the river was flowing in the direction that they were supposed to go…  
“Whatcha looking at?” asked Plower.  
DiamondBlade looked over his shoulder. “I don’t know if we should go up or down. I…had a dream, and someone told me that we needed to go the Sea of Endless Sand next. Then we’ll be one step closer to the Ender Kingdom.”  
DiamondBlade was thankful that Plower didn’t question him, but he did complain, “A desert? That’s not usually the best place to journey.”  
“I agree, but…”  
“Let’s go,” sighed Plower. “We heading up or down?”  
DiamondBlade thought for a minute. “Well, the river’s going to keep flowing in that direction. We decided a while ago that we would keep following the river. It’s unlikely that the river would go into the desert, but the ravine looks like it will curve away from the river and possibly lead us into a forest or a swamp. The ravine’s out, because I would trust my…erm, dream over the river.”  
Plower sighed and stated, “I would really love to ask you about your dream or whatever it was, but seeing as you don’t look like you want to talk about it, I won’t.”  
“Thanks.”  
“Don’t thank me now; I’ll ask about it some other time,” warned Plower.  
DiamondBlade shrugged. Dustedlight had said that eventually DiamondBlade could tell Plower, so all he said was “Sure. That’s fine.”  
“Then let’s go.”  
DiamondBlade leaned over the side of the cliff that Plower had built to get up to the cave and jumped over the gap that Plower had also made to escape the spiders. His feet thumped against the cobblestone stairs and looked up for Plower. Plower walked to the edge and jumped down with him. “The horses?” queried DiamondBlade.  
“They’ll follow us. They won’t fall.”  
Plower pulled DiamondBlade aside as the horses jumped down after them — Dawn came down first, and Midnight followed close behind. DiamondBlade mounted Dawn and rode her down the steps. He glanced behind him as Plower pulled himself onto Midnight’s saddle and galloped down towards him. DiamondBlade smiled at his friend as Plower pulled Midnight up beside him. He grinned, “Ready, Plower?”  
“After you.”  
DiamondBlade nodded and snapped Dawn’s reins. Dawn neighed and shot across the riverbank, pebbles flying out from behind her hooves in her wake. The sun was slowly climbing up the sky, and DiamondBlade thought, And to the desert we go.


	13. A Whisper of an NPC

They reached the desert not long after they left the ravine. The sun was almost at its peak, and as DiamondBlade looked up at the golden orb in the sky, he already knew that it would be a long day or two…or three. Their horses would help them cross the desert easier than it would if they were walking, but it would still take them a long time, judging from the name ‘Sea of Endless Sand’. Plower’s head was bent down, and his eyes were closed. DiamondBlade could see perspiration starting to form on the farmer’s face. With a start, DiamondBlade realized how long and heavy Plower’s robe must have been. His own Minecraft skin was a thin light blue and white hoodie with a dark blue-purple streak going diagonally across his chest and shorts with sneakers. DiamondBlade had a dark blue sash tied around his head, which also helped keep his hair off his face — although sometimes it didn’t work, like when he was riding Dawn. The sleeves on his jacket only went down to his elbows, and frankly DiamondBlade wasn’t as affected by the heat as he expected. But Plower…  
“Hey, Plower,” remarked DiamondBlade. “How are you doing over there?”  
Plower’s head snapped up, and the NPC turned to DiamondBlade with dull eyes. “Hot. Very, very hot.”  
DiamondBlade frowned. “Hold on. Midnight, stop.” Plower’s horse snorted and halted, as did Dawn. DiamondBlade reached over and held Plower’s shoulder. “Do you care about your sleeves?” he asked.  
“No, but what are you — ”  
Plower’s voice trailed off as DiamondBlade kept one hand firmly on Plower’s left shoulder and grabbed the fabric with his other. With all of his might, DiamondBlade pulled back on the fabric and kept pulling until he heard it rip off. Plower gasped, and DiamondBlade happily held up a long, thick strand of fabric that was once Plower’s sleeve. He did the same to Plower’s right arm and asked, “Better?”  
Plower rolled his arms and nodded. “Yeah…cooler, I guess.”  
DiamondBlade gave Plower one strip of fabric back and told him, “Tie this around your head, like me. It’ll help.”  
Plower took the strip, lifted up his bangs, and tied it around his forehead. He gave DiamondBlade a crooked smile and said, “Thanks. Feels better already.”  
“Glad to hear it.”  
Plower hesitated, and then asked, “So, um, do you know where we’re headed? I get that we’re going across the desert, but in which direction?”  
“We’re still headed straight across. But I assume we’ll find some sort of structure that will, you know, tell us we’re headed the right way.”  
“How do you know?” asked Plower.  
DiamondBlade shrugged and admitted, “I sorta just have that feeling.”  
“That’s reassuring.”  
The two rode on in silence. DiamondBlade swayed slightly as Dawn trotted over the sand, her hooves sinking in a little bit each time. The sun beat down on them, and DiamondBlade could feel sweat trickling down his neck and staining his shirt. His vision began to waver, and soon DiamondBlade was blind to everything but the pale color of sand. DiamondBlade blinked rapidly, trying to keep his sweat out of his eyes. Suddenly, he realized that he had no idea how long they had been in the desert. He glanced up at the sky, and he saw that the sun was about three quarters down in the sky and was going to set very soon. DiamondBlade’s eyes widened, and he swung around in his saddle and gaped at what was behind them. There was nothing but sand and cacti — no sign of the ravine or the river, for that matter.  
DiamondBlade gasped and turned around again, dazed. Plower glanced at him and noticed his companion’s distracted mood. “Hey, DiamondBlade,” Plower said softly. “Are you alright?”  
DiamondBlade looked weakly at Plower. “How long has it been?”  
“I dunno…a few hours, maybe? DiamondBlade, do you need water? You don’t look very good.”  
DiamondBlade’s head felt light. “Yeah…yeah,” he agreed hoarsely. “Water.”  
Plower stopped the horses and reached into the chests on Midnight. He pulled out three glass bottles of water and handed them to DiamondBlade. DiamondBlade grabbed them and drank them all in a few seconds. He coughed as he finished the third one and rubbed his eyes. “Thanks, Plower,” DiamondBlade rasped as he gave the bottles back to Plower. “I don’t know what happened to me.”  
“You were dehydrated,” Plower told him. “For the last three hours. I could see it in your eyes, but I thought you knew.”  
“Ah…” DiamondBlade swallowed and glared at the sand ahead. “I hope we’re almost there.”  
“I don’t think so. This desert is huge. We might be able to make it in a couple days — that’s if we keep going through the night. Can you do that, DiamondBlade?” asked Plower. “Do you have the strength.”  
“I couldn’t even hold a sword,” admitted DiamondBlade.  
At that moment, an arrow whizzed an inch away from DiamondBlade’s face. DiamondBlade gasped and pulled on Dawn’s reins. Dawn neighed and bucked, alarmed. “Where did that come from?” gasped DiamondBlade.  
Plower leaned forward and pointed past DiamondBlade. “There! Look!’  
DiamondBlade whipped around to stare at a figure standing far away from them. A bow was in its hands, and the figure was pulling back on another arrow. DiamondBlade shouted, “Duck!” just as the figure let go.  
DiamondBlade and Plower leaned forward in the saddles just in time, and the arrow soared over their heads harmlessly. DiamondBlade breathed, “Dawn! Go!” in his horse’s ear.  
Dawn brayed and began to trot. Soon she broke into a full blown gallop. DiamondBlade glanced over his shoulder and saw Plower following. More arrows began to rain down on them, and DiamondBlade yelled, “There’s more!”  
Plower nodded. “I’ll get the ones on this side! You get the ones over there!” The NPC took out his bow, enchanted with Infinity and Power IV, and began to return fire to the left.  
DiamondBlade protested, “I don’t have a bow!”  
Plower took a second to rummage in his inventory and then tossed DiamondBlade an identical bow to his and an arrow, which is all he needed if he had an Infinity enchantment. “There! Now you do!”  
DiamondBlade bit his lip and turned to look to his right. There, he saw figures similar to the first one emerging from behind sand dunes and cacti. Bandits? wondered DiamondBlade briefly. Some were close enough for DiamondBlade to make out their features. They looked like NPCs, from what DiamondBlade could see. They were shrouded in hooded cloaks, which made DiamondBlade wonder if they got hot. Then he remembered that deserts sometimes had sandstorms. The desert NPCs had scarves tied around the bottom half of their faces like ninjas, and their eyes all gleamed with ferocity. They wore dust-brown tunics with a belt around their waists and had fabric tied around their hands like gloves. They had brown leggings and sandals. They all had a bow in their hands, and they only let two seconds pass between each shot.   
DiamondBlade took this all in while he drew his first arrow and let it fly. Because he had never actually drawn an arrow for real in his life, DiamondBlade needed time to get used to it. But soon it began to feel natural, and soon he was shooting arrows nearly as fast as the desert NPCs were. Dawn had gotten faster, and the cacti were becoming a green blur. But the desert NPCs were also running with them and firing simultaneously. DiamondBlade gulped and shouted as he felt an arrow dig into his arm. DiamondBlade winced and glanced at the wound, fuming. Beside him, Plower asked breathlessly, “Did you get hit?” just as two other arrows pierced DiamondBlade’s leg and back.  
DiamondBlade gasped as he fired four more arrows and replied, “Yes. Three times. But I think I’ll be okay…what about you?”  
“Not yet — wait, I just did. In my side…it hurts, but it isn’t deadly. I don’t think their bows are enchanted.”  
“That’s a plus,” grumbled DiamondBlade. He fired at an NPC crouched behind a cactus with as much power as he could, and he watched with satisfaction as the arrow pierced the NPC’s stomach. The NPC doubled over and stumbled away.  
DiamondBlade turned away to look at Plower and was about to say something when his head exploded in pain. He let out a wild cry as his vision throbbed red. After that, everything turned hazy. DiamondBlade remembered slumping against his horse and Plower screaming beside him. He recalled falling off and sinking to the ground, his head sinking into the sand. What… DiamondBlade could hardly think through the pain. What happened? Numbly he reached up and felt a rough shaft on the left side of his head. He moved his hand down and felt feathers. Oh. An arrow…arrow hit me. Okay… DiamondBlade took a deep breath and closed his eyes, the pain still feeling like someone had stabbed a white-hot needle into his skull, which wasn’t too far from the truth. He couldn’t register anything from that point; he felt more arrows making their ways into him. DiamondBlade could make out a faint sound of horses neighing in panic, but everything sounded so distant. He opened his eyes slightly and could see a face…was that Plower? He didn’t know. It was like someone had wiped their thumb on DiamondBlade’s vision and created a huge smudge that blurred everything and wouldn’t go away. Something thumped beside his head…Plower? There was wailing beside him, as if someone was screaming at him. DiamondBlade wanted to tell Plower that he was still alive, but for some reason, his voice wouldn’t work. DiamondBlade opened his mouth once, but he couldn’t find the strength to attempt to speak. Both his mouth and eyes closed again, and DiamondBlade’s head lolled back. He felt himself getting lifted up, and suddenly he could speak. “Plower…” he gasped, the pain bursting in his head and body again as he moved. “I…”  
“Don’t die, DiamondBlade!” DiamondBlade heard Plower cry. “You can’t…”  
“Hey…I…” DiamondBlade took in a huge breath and opened his eyes again. For a brief moment, his vision was cleared. And in that brief moment, he could see the desert NPCs putting away their bows and moving in slowly. Now swords were drawn. There’s no way we can stand against them now, thought DiamondBlade sadly. And…and I’m not going to be here in a few seconds… It was true. He wouldn’t be dead — at least he hoped he wouldn’t be — but DiamondBlade could feel his consciousness slowly slipping away, farther and farther out of his reach. His head grew light as Plower put him down. The last thing he saw before he passed out was Plower’s expression as the NPC drew his own bow, a look of determination to defend his friend mixed with absolute hopelessness on his face. Plower… Then everything blacked out.

 

***

 

DiamondBlade had no idea where he was. It was misty and cold, and when he looked up, he could see the moon overhead. But something was wrong — the moon was red instead of the regular pale white. A lunar eclipse? DiamondBlade gasped as the moon cast a blood-red light down on him. He looked at his blocky hands and cringed at the strange likeliness of blood that was created by the moon. “What is this?” he whispered. “Why…what’s an eclipse doing in Minecraft? I didn’t know that was possible…What’s going on?”  
“This is a glimpse of what is to come,” murmured a voice.  
DiamondBlade cried out and drew his sword, which — luckily — was still in his inventory. He whirled around, demanding, “Who are you? Show yourself! I’m not afraid of you!”  
The voice chuckled. “What a strange warrior you are. Don’t deny it, young one. I can see your fear, circulating within your veins. I can see all of your nightmares…what scares you most…what brings you to screams in the night…the things you’d rather die before experiencing.”  
DiamondBlade swallowed, but his throat was dry. “O-oh really? Then you should know that none of them are of you.”  
“But of course, boy.” The voice was smooth and had a slight hiss, as if a snake was speaking. But the hiss didn’t extend to the words, so the creature still spoke almost like a normal, mildly evil or psychotic NPC. “You have never seen me…I can promise you that. But I have watched you. I saw you enter Minecraft. I saw you run into Shade, the enderman. I watched as the Dark One found your village and attacked with his mobs. I saw…” Here the voice wavered a tiny bit. “…I saw your friend, Reader, die.”  
At that, DiamondBlade felt as if his blood was boiling. He sprang forward with his sword and screamed, “Don’t EVER speak of that! I don’t care who you are, but you will honor Reader’s spirit as a brave warrior, do you hear me? He was a courageous fighter, understand? He was my BEST FRIEND’S GRANDFATHER!”  
“Best friend, you say?” questioned the voice slyly. “Do you care about Plower that much?”  
“Sure I do,” retorted DiamondBlade hotly. “He was the first NPC I met here in Minecraft. But that’s beside the point. What do you want with me? Are you a friend or an enemy?”  
“You can hardly call me a friend, but I am no enemy to you.”  
DiamondBlade rolled his eyes. “Sure, like I can believe that.”  
“Believe what you want,” hissed the voice, “but it is your own fault for not trusting me.”  
“Trust YOU?” protested DiamondBlade angrily. “You’re not even showing yourself to me!”  
The voice was silent for a minute, like it was considering DiamondBlade’s statement. Finally, it agreed, “I will show you who I am. But you must never speak of me to anyone, do you understand?”  
DiamondBlade grumbled, “No promises. Now show yourself.”  
In front of him, the mist parted. It started off as a shadow, but then it got thicker and thicker until it became an NPC-sized creature. As DiamondBlade peered at it, he realized it was an NPC. It spread its arms, and shadows and fog billowed off from the NPC. DiamondBlade shivered as he felt cold wind rolling off from it. It was covered in a long, ragged black cloak. A hood was flung over its head, but it didn’t hide the NPC’s face. DiamondBlade looked at it, and with once glance he could see that the NPC was a man with smooth, pale white skin and raven-black hair. The NPC’s violet eyes shimmered with youthful energy, but DiamondBlade could easily see the years — possibly thousands of them — behind the energy. The NPC wore a black tunic with a simple silver belt around his waist. An obsidian sword handle jutted out from the sheath hanging on the side of the NPC’s belt. Black feathery wings were spread out wide on the NPC’s back, making DiamondBlade wonder if this was a normal NPC or a completely different kind. After all, DiamondBlade reasoned, what kind of NPC has wings?  
The NPC gave DiamondBlade a crooked smile. “You have no reason to be scared of me now,” he said, “but you may be at the end of this dream.”  
“A dream?” DiamondBlade suddenly remembered the desert NPCs. He remembered the arrow in his head, and he remembered Plower. “Oh no…Plower!” he gasped.  
The NPC narrowed his eyes. “Is there something wrong?”  
“Yes…when I entered this dream, it was because I was wounded in a fight with some desert NPCs and took an arrow to my head. I…I left Plower to them. There were at least two dozen. He can’t stand against them alone,” worried DiamondBlade. “He might…he might be killed.” DiamondBlade’s stomach churned at the thought of it. He had already seen Reader die for them, fighting the monsters; how could DiamondBlade stand it if his grandson died? He had promised Reader that he would be the Warrior. That DiamondBlade would make Reader proud. But what of Plower? If Plower died, then what did DiamondBlade mean to Reader? He would have let Reader down, and DiamondBlade remembered constantly promising Reader that he wouldn’t.  
DiamondBlade looked down and fought back the tears in his eyes. “Send me back,” he pleaded. “I have to help my friend.”  
The NPC glanced up at the red moon and then back down at him. “You are still in a dire condition,” retorted the NPC. “If I sent you back now, you would die. You need rest if you are to recover…and anyway, I do not think you’d want to get sent back now.”  
“Why not?”  
The NPC waved his hand as if DiamondBlade’s question didn’t matter. “Stop talking. Just listen to me.”  
“Okay…but tell me your name first,” countered DiamondBlade.  
The NPC let out an exasperated huff. “Fine,” he sighed. “If it makes you listen to me. My name is Whisper, the Master of Shadows and Prophecies. Now if you please — ”  
DiamondBlade interrupted, “Why is your name Whisper?” He knew it was a rude question, but he tended to blurt things out a lot.  
Whisper glared at him. “It is not my real name. That is a name I keep secret. It’s just a name given to me by those who meet me — I whisper prophecies in their ears, whispers of the future…get it?”  
“Whatever.”  
“Okay. Good. Now I understand that you have met with Dustedlight…and he told you…that he wouldn’t tell you who his sources were.” Whisper’s voice sounded guarded.  
DiamondBlade nodded slowly. “Right…”  
“I have the knowledge of that. And I have the authority to tell you.” Whisper winced, and then continued, “But I think you understand.”  
DiamondBlade had no idea what Whisper was talking about until the meaning of the last few sentences dawned on him. Knowledge of the source…the authority to tell you…the Master of Shadows and Prophecies… “It’s you!” gasped DiamondBlade. “You gave Dustedlight the Prophecy of the End!”  
“Yes…” said Whisper quietly. “And I already understand your hatred of me. So…”  
DiamondBlade braced himself for the wave of anger and hatred that he expected to crash over him, but he felt nothing. “What?” he murmured. “I don’t…”  
Whisper cracked a small smile. “Oh. Oh, good. That means you’ve finally accepted your Prophecy. Thank you, DiamondBlade.”  
“What…” DiamondBlade didn’t know what Whisper meant. He was still trying to find his anger. “What do you mean, accepted my Prophecy?”  “I assume,” began Whisper, “that during your audience with Dustedlight, you convinced yourself that the Prophecy is not a bad thing. That you could find the strength to answer to it. You accepted your fate, and in that, you accepted the Prophecy of the End. Now it is truly yours.”  
“You mean, it wasn’t mine before last night?”  
“No, no, I assure you it was still yours. But it was only because it was tied to your being, not because you wanted it to be yours,” explained Whisper. “Now, the Prophecy is truly bound to you. It really is yours.”  
“Oh…” said DiamondBlade. It still only made about twenty-five percent sense to him, but he decided to go with it. “Well, I mean, if you didn’t bring me to Minecraft with this Prophecy…I would have never met my friends.”  
Whisper grinned, “And now the cup is half full. Good. Now, I suppose you want to know what the eclipse above us means?”  
DiamondBlade blinked. He had forgotten all about the eclipse. “I do! Explain it to me, and why you were acting all mysterious before you revealed yourself to me,” added DiamondBlade.  
Whisper had an excellent poker face. “What I said about your fears are true,” said the Master of Shadows and Prophecies. “And everything else I said. Perhaps it is simply the mere addition of you being able to see me causes you to look at me more…human. And the eclipse, like I said, is a glimpse of what is coming.”  
“During the Battle of the End?” asked DiamondBlade.  
“No. This eclipse is far in the future, when the last Minecraft ender war will be fought.” Whisper’s eyes looked like they were a million miles away.  
“The last Minecraft ender war,” breathed DiamondBlade. “What’s that?”  
“Wars between NPCs and endermen. It has become a separate idea of war after the Ender Kingdom’s history happened.”  
“And when will the final ender war be?”  
Whisper’s eyes returned to him, and they looked like steel as he said, “Information of that belongs to no one. Especially you. Only time will tell of that, DiamondBlade. All I will say is that you will have a stormy life here in Minecraft, and your bravery will be tested time and time again.” Whisper’s luminous eyes bored into DiamondBlade’s. “And you will have to make choices that will affect your life.”  
DiamondBlade gulped and said, “That doesn’t sound very good.”  
Whisper had the nerve to laugh. “You humor me, my friend, Warrior. I must say, I’m happy with how this Prophecy turned out. You’ll make a good Warrior.”  
“Oh, yeah, and I have a question for you,” remembered DiamondBlade. “Where did you get the prophecies?”  
Whisper smiled. “Right. Well, my programming just…allows me to receive them from the coding of Minecraft. It’s that simple.”  
“Wait, so did Notch create you?” questioned DiamondBlade.  
Whisper frowned. “I don’t know. I…I…” Suddenly Whisper doubled over, as if he was stabbed in the stomach. His face was tight with pain and confusion, and when he straightened back up, his eyes were disoriented. “Don’t ask me that question. Something about me is…strange. One day you will return to me again, DiamondBlade…maybe then I can answer you.” Whisper took a breath and rubbed his forehead.  
DiamondBlade bit his lip. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to make you…uh…do whatever you just did. Or what just happened.”  
Whisper’s eyes were glazed over. “I must go,” he said faintly. “I will see you again some other time…”  
DiamondBlade raised an eyebrow as Whisper lifted a hand to him and turned around. He watched Whisper’s wings bounce on his back as the NPC disappeared into the fog. Then he was alone. What did Whisper mean? wondered DiamondBlade. Far-off eclipses…the last Minecraft ender war…choices that affect my life… DiamondBlade swallowed. I just need to get back to Plower.  
He drew his sword and gazed at the eclipse above him. The moon glowed red, and it seemed to get brighter and brighter as DiamondBlade shouted Plower’s name in his head, trying to wake himself up. Then DiamondBlade felt something touch his shoulder, and he was wrenched out of his dream.

 

***

 

“Ugh…what…what happened?” DiamondBlade was lying on his back on something soft. His muscles felt stiff, and his head throbbed. Someone’s hand was on his shoulder. “Plower?…” DiamondBlade opened his eyes and turned to look at the person beside him. “Plower, I — ” His voice wavered and disappeared as he saw that the NPC beside him was not Plower, but one of the desert NPCs.


End file.
